When I Have Wings
by DragonlaKirsche
Summary: An exploration of the events after the Battle at the Castle and Maleficent and Aurora's relationship. Eventual Malora. Don't like femslash or Malora? Don't read. Unbeta'd. Early chapters may be edited after I get into my stride. It's my first fic. T for now, possibly changing to M later.
1. New Flight

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Oh but that I did. But I don't. Disney are all powerful.

Chapter 1: New Flight

Maleficent looked down at Stefan's body, recalling for an instant the young boy who had thrown away iron, now encased in it in death. There was no time for further contemplation as a figure in gold barrelled through the archway. Maleficent turned, suddenly afraid. She had not wished for Stefan's death in the end but what would Aurora think, seeing her standing over her father's body.

"Aurora…"

"Godmother! Are you alright?"

"I am fine, Beastie."

Aurora looked at Maleficent's wings and then down at her father.

"I'm sorry. It was over…but he grabbed me and we fell…I couldn't…" she faltered as Aurora knelt beside her father.

"He was the one who stole your wings." It wasn't a question.

A shriek from Diaval distracted Maleficent and she turned and stormed into the castle, flinging a "Stay here!" over her shoulder.

"Into a bird!" she cried and the chains that the soldiers had once more put upon him fell away from the suddenly much smaller raven. He flew out to her, cawing. Calls of surprise from the soldiers were followed by heavy footsteps and they fled to where Aurora still stood.

"Do you still wish to return to the Moors with us?" Maleficent asked.

"Yes." Aurora nodded emphatically.

"Then hang on, Beastie." Maleficent pulled her close and took to the sky, Diaval behind them as soldiers poured through to where the King lay.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Maleficent was flagging by the time they reached the Moors. Her wings were strong still but she was unused to flight and had never carried another with her. Aurora clung to her in silence as they flew over the wall of thorns, towards the Great Oak. Maleficent had not returned there once since Stefan stole her wings but now it was the one place she wanted to be. Aurora tumbled from her grasp as she landed, staggering from exhaustion, still feeling the effects of the iron.

"Into a man." She waved a hand at Diaval. "Look after her." She commanded as she sank to the ground and collapsed into unconsciousness.


	2. Clean Again

Disclaimer: I kneel before Disney as a Deity.

Chapter Two: Clean Again

Maleficent struggled out her sleep. She hadn't dreamed, which was unusual. Her dreams were of flight, her nightmares were of battles and iron and the continuous dull pain of phantom wings. Looking around her, she saw she was at her old home and Balthazar was standing guard over her. Confusion furrowed her brow as she got to her feet and staggered slightly.

Her eyes widened as she felt the weight of her wings behind her, furling and unfurling to wake themselves up. She inhaled deeply and then other thoughts crashed into her mind as the memory of last night returned with full force. Where were Diaval and Aurora? She turned frantically, panicking.

"Gone for breakfast." Balthazar uttered in his guttural tongue, in reply to her unspoken question. "They slept a while too but woke before you and had no desire to disturb you." He sensed her agitation and sought to calm her.

Maleficent nodded her thanks, giving the smile she reserved for Balthazar and turned to the cliff edge and the sun, already far into the sky. She must have truly been exhausted to have slept past the dawn. The sun warmed her feathers as she spread her wings wide, basking in their return, the joy almost a physical pain.

She breathed deeply once more, calmer, allowing the breath to fill her, feeling the stretch of ribs and muscles and then took a step and trusted in her wings to catch her as she fell down the sheer cliff edge, down, down. Her wings snapped open causing a mighty downdraught as she soared towards the pool where she bathed, barrelling down into the water. The resulting waves broke on the shore, spraying anyone standing there with water. Indignant squeaks from faeries echoed around the glade and she laughed at the mischief. The squeaks changed to nervous excitement and trepidation as they realised who had caused the wash.

"Her wings! Her wings! She has her wings again!" words sounded through flurries of noise. She glanced towards the shore, mock glaring at the heads peeking out and the noises vanished, the faeries with them. Maleficent did not like an audience during her ablutions.

Slowly she unwound her crown and let her hair fall loose. It felt good to be free from the constriction. A gentle breeze toyed with the tresses and cooled the water on her face. Water droplets rolled off her feathers and her wings ruffled themselves in the sunlight filtering through to rid themselves of the last of it, hovering carefully above the water as she removed the leather under-suit and washed herself.

When she was done, she let her wings hover on the surface of the water, the air trapped giving buoyancy, and ducked her head under, opening her eyes as she let herself be supported by the wings and the water.

Bubbles slowly released from her mouth and she became lost in the tranquil, soft world of coolness and dappling sunlight reaching below the surface. Glints of silver fish swam about her and in the murky depths, shadows of the larger beasts of the pool moved torpidly in and out of the weeds.

The need for air overcame her eventually and she resurfaced, gasping slightly. A little water sprite hovered nearby with a wooden comb and she smiled, allowing it to perch on her shoulders and wing tips in order to brush out her hair. The water sprite was efficient and her hair was dry soon enough.

She waded to the pool's edge, where she'd flung her discarded clothing, to find an old brown dress, like the ones she used to wear. She wondered for a second who would have brought it, she suspected Robin, who of course would've heard of her and her wings' return through the faerie gossip.

Dressing herself in the simple robe and trous, she stood a moment, stroking her wings, her feathers warm and smooth beneath her touch. Her wings had been returned to her and in the late morning light she could scarcely believe it as they glittered earthy brown and golden. The feeling of wholeness overwhelmed her and she resisted the urge to weep.

Instead she relished the sudden leap and sweep that gained her flight and returned to the Great Oak.


	3. Breakfast Is A Most Important Thing

AN and Disclaimer: I am writing this thru a migraine aura but I think I got most of the spelling mistakes. The grammar I cannot vouch for. All hail the mighty glow cloud! Uh…Disney I mean.

Chapter Three: Breakfast Is The Most Important Thing

Balthazar had left when she returned but Aurora and Diaval had returned, complete with a basket full of food for breakfast. They turned from their meal at the sound of her wings, the downdraught ruffling their hair.

Diaval had seen his mistress in such garb before but never with her wings and he was astounded by the vision outlined by the sun. She looked so much more at peace, a light beginning to flicker in her eyes that he'd never seen before. He suddenly felt that she could now understand his reaction when she had first saved him. What Stefan had done to her beautiful self might have saved her life but the cost and the pain was terrible. At least he had been able to transform back again that very day.

For Aurora it was a complete shock as she stared at the Faerie, stunned into silence by such a different appearance. Maleficent returned their gazes equally, tilting her chin upwards as her wings shuffling slightly under such scrutiny. They had a mind of their own at the moment, perhaps still adjusting to taking orders again. If indeed they ever had.

"We got breakfast. Black nuts." Diaval broke the silence.

"Thank you." Maleficent inclined her head.

"Are you alright Mistress?" Diaval asked, almost nervously, as if he were unsure of the answer. She seemed so calm, how was that even possible? Surely there was still more to come.

She closed her eyes, taking a black nut and chewing it contemplatively as she moved to seat herself at the foot of the Great Oak, reclining against it.

"Mistress?" he asked again.

"Diaval." The name rolled out her mouth leisurely but with purpose. "Many years ago, I saved your life, in return for which you have been my servant. Whatever I needed. Last night you repaid that debt. And indeed, in your service to me have gone above it. I release you from your obligation. You may do as you wish."

Aurora looked between the two, holding a breath, a mouth full of berries hanging slightly open. Diaval seemed slightly shocked at such a statement and he tilted his head to one side. His mistress had always been fondly contemptuous and he had a hard time adjusting to this sudden calm distant regality. He studied her closely, detecting no façade in her words.

"I think…" he said slowly, choosing his words deliberately. "…I would choose to stay with you, as your friend, Mi…Maleficent." The name sounded oddly in his ears but he took the liberty, if she was indeed releasing him.

She opened her eyes to stare at him in blank surprise. "What?"

"To stay here. With you. Although I would ask for more freedom. And no more dragons. Or dogs." He smiled lopsidedly at her and her reaction. Did she truly think he had been but repaying a debt all these years? Maleficent was his Mistress, snarky, rude, sarcastic and troubled, but over the years, she had also become his friend. No-one knew him half so well and he prided himself that there were few her knew her so well either. He had not known her as a child, as Robin had, but he had known her during her darkest and most despondent moments and he would not abandon her now merely because she finally deemed he had repaid the service. Personally, he thought it had been paid off long ago.

Her eyes narrowed as if she too were seeking out deceit. Clearly she found none as an eyebrow quirked upwards with the corner of her mouth. "Very well." She accepted his answer. "There are other things to do also…" she made to move from the base of the tree.

"Which can wait until after breakfast." Diaval motioned towards the black nuts.

"…alright." Maleficent agreed, settling back down and pickily choosing another black nut. Aurora grinned happily as they sat to breakfast together, her fingers and lips stained with the juices of berries.

Maleficent found Aurora's silence unnerving as they continued eating. One of the reasons she'd been so intent to get on was in an attempt to escape awkwardness. She'd had no reaction beyond a smile to Maleficent releasing Diaval. Surely the girl would have more questions than this? After what had happened the past few days? But then again, Maleficent reasoned, there was a lot to think over and process before questions could be asked.

And so Aurora's first one surprised her.

"May I call you Maleficent too?" she piped up. "Seeing as you're not really my godmother."

The words stung a little and Maleficent jerked her head as if from an actual sting; she'd gotten use to the fond pet name as much as it irritated her.

"If you wish." She replied, a little coldly.

Aurora fell silent once more; slightly intimidated in a way she had never felt before. Wings gave Maleficent an extra aura of power and her silent dignified demeanour distanced her from the playfully adoring and slightly contemptuous Faerie she had come to know. Or maybe there was just a lot for Maleficent to think about too.

Diaval noticed such a change too. There was an air of peace around his Mistress that he had never seen before. Truly, it was over for her. He wondered though. Maleficent would turn him into a growling sheep dog if she thought he knew but he had seen in the past the nights where she feared to sleep and once exhaustion had taken her, the nightmares that had shaken her and heard her cries of pain. She was hiding something.

Aurora gazed surreptitiously at her Faerie as they ate, following her gaze to the castle in the distance.

"You never said but it was wasn't it." Again, it was not a question.

"Was what?" Maleficent shook herself out of a slight reverie.

"My father. Who stole your wings." Aurora's voice was eerily calm and detached.

The appendages in question rustled in agitation, belying Maleficent's calmness.

"Yes." She inclined her head.

"How?" Aurora let the question out before she could stop herself.

With a sharp inhalation, Maleficent stood abruptly and walked to the cliff edge. Aurora waited patiently, sensing Maleficent would tell her, trusting her not to flee.

"We were…friends once. Once upon a time. I even at one point believed that…" Maleficent trailed off, unsure how to word her feelings. "When I was 16, he kissed me and told me it was true love's kiss." She shuddered in revulsion and anger and contempt tinged her tone for the first time that morning. "But the human world was too powerful a draw. He bragged to me the first time he met me that one day he would live in that castle." Maleficent pointed to it. "True love mattered not to him in comparison. If he even ever believed in true love. If it was not indeed just another way to use me. He returned a long while later and I foolishly believed him when he warned me of a plot by King Henry to kill me. I trusted him. Even though I already knew what men were capable of. He laced my drink with a sleeping drug and burned my wings off with iron whilst I was unconscious…They made him king for that." She fell silent.

Aurora felt the weight of her father's crimes and the curse now made a horrifying sense and her shoulders dropped as tears sprang to her eyes. She bit down on her lower lip as it trembled.

"That's why you…cursed me the way you did, isn't it." There was a sob in her voice, but it was not for herself but for the pain of Maleficent.

Maleficent tensed, now even more uncomfortable, her wings folding and unfolding, unsure of the reason behind that sob and therefore uncertain how to react.

Diaval watched the two of them as Aurora had watched Maleficent and him earlier, knowing that this conversation was necessary and at this time, but he had a strange feeling of the future dividing. Two ways, two different reactions. Aurora seemed calm though, understanding radiating from her face. He wanted to speak, to comfort Maleficent, tell her she had not been foolish to trust, to comfort Aurora, tell her it was not her fault but he stayed silent, waiting for Maleficent's reply.

"Yes." Maleficent whispered, so softly the wind almost took the answer away with it as it gusted over the cliff edge.

Silence fell. Diaval did not even dare reach for another black nut. A charged atmosphere pervaded the air.

Still Maleficent did not turn to face Aurora.

"May…may I touch them?" she asked intrepidly, as if to force the tension to such an extent that it doubled back upon itself and relaxed.

Maleficent turned round at that, eyes widening in equal parts fear and wonder, quashing the urge to recoil, to flee, to fly. With a swallow, she inclined her head and moved away from the cliff edge, spreading out one enormous wing towards Aurora, trying not to feel déjà vu at the action.

Slowly, infinitely slowly, Aurora extended a hand, as if towards a shy reclusive faerie creature that she did not wish to startle.

Maleficent shuddered when soft finger tips reached her outer feathers and stroked downwards but did not move.

Growing bolder at the lack of recoiling, Aurora's touch became firmer and she trailed her fingers up over the horns and inwards into the downy softness inside.

Maleficent's wings twitched with mild affront at the tickling sensation and Aurora flinched away, locking eyes with her to see if she had done wrong.

"It tickles." Maleficent sniffed, to excuse the action.

A mischievous grin spread across Aurora's face a second later, much like the one she wore when mud fighting with the Wallerbogs. Maleficent saw it and her eyes widened but she was too late to shift away.

"Nooo. Don't!" she cried, twisting away as tickling fingers brushed the downy feathers, mimicking the hand action that Maleficent used herself when casting spells. "Beastie. Beastie!...Aurora!" she flapped her wings once and rose into the air as the sternness in the use of her real name stilled Aurora.

Aurora looked shocked but then huffed "That's not fair."

Maleficent suddenly realised what she'd done and looked about her in a moment of awe. Unconscious flight, being able to use her wings to escape, she had not done that in nigh on two decades. Relief coursed through her at such a feeling and her eyes welled up with tears.

Diaval merely grinned, happy to see his mistress with her wings, seeing her as she was meant to be, majestic.

She slowly returned to the ground, as a feather floating downwards on the breeze, tears spilling over.

_I can fly…_

Aurora noticed the tears and was horror-stricken, believing her actions to be the cause.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry godmot…I'm sorry Maleficent. Truly. I didn't…I wasn't thinking…"

"You…are sorry?" Maleficent stared at her in disbelief.

"Yes. I'm…"

"Sorry Beastie? Sorry for what?" A wide smile spread across Maleficent's face, the first true smile in forever, wider than even her smiles as a child, wider than her laughter in the pool. "Beastie you returned my wings to me." She spread them wide to emphasise her point and she laughed for a second time that day, clearly as a stream and with a giant flap that knocked Diaval and Aurora over she took to the skies, feeling so free that she gave them quite an aerial acrobatics display, twisting and turning, diving downwards at speed to relish the moment her wings caught her and guided her back to the skies where she belonged. Laughter echoed through all the Moors and the Fair Folk laughed with her at the joy.

"Woooo HOOOOO!" she called.

Diaval laughed. Aurora laughed and clapped her hands, grasping Diaval to dance him round the cliff edge in joy at the Faerie's returned freedom. Maleficent swooped down with one final laugh, settling herself on the edge of the cliff once more, grinning at Diaval and her Beastie who could no longer restrain herself.

She ran up and gave Maleficent the hug she had longed to give her for so long; almost knocking them both back off the cliff.

Maleficent was in such a state of joy that she did not hesitate in enveloping her Beastie in arms and wings and such a hug it was, so unlike the one she never received from her father or her mother or her aunties, full of warmth and joy and reunion and happy tears and the shaking of laughter.


	4. Squalls

An: Lotsa, lotsa convos. They need doing. I have a thing. Relationships are great but stuff needs sorting in order for healthiness to begin/continue. Hopefully I'm doing it right…  
*bows low to Disney*

Chapter 4: Squalls

Aurora clung onto Maleficent tightly as she felt wings retract and Maleficent release her from her grasp. She looked up at Maleficent with shining eyes.

"Will you take me with you?" She dared to ask.

"Whereabouts do you think I am going?" Maleficent arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"Up!" Aurora giggled. "Up! Take me up!" she burrowed herself back into Maleficent's arms.

"Come on now, little Beastie…" Maleficent smoothed Aurora's hair where it had been ruffled by the embrace.

"I'm not little!" Aurora retorted into Maleficent chest. "And if I am then that just makes it easier for you."

Maleficent huffed and rolled her eyes. Diaval smirked at this sign that his Mistress was still as…herself as she was in his acquaintance with her. He began to gather up the remnants of breakfast.

"Aurora…" Maleficent began and the girl could tell from her tone that the moment of light-heartedness was over. For now. She swore in that moment to bring it back with playfulness and smiles, as much as she could manage. Maleficent's next words did not surprise her. It had been lingering in her mind too, as much as she wished to forget it. It cast darkness over everything. "Last night we left a castle on fire and a Kingdom without a King. There will be much chaos and confusion and if we do not act swiftly, it may be too late to act. We have rested and recuperated as much as we are able, played longer than we should have and now there is business to see to."

Aurora's body slackened against Maleficent's and she moved her hands to grasp at the front of Maleficent's gown, burrowing her head.

"I don't want to go back there." She said firmly. "I don't ever want to go back there. You promised. You said I could be here. With you. You said if I wished it." Her eyes, when she looked back up at Maleficent, pinned her to the spot. This was not a child's plea, an attempt at running away, this was a woman's seriousness and it froze Maleficent for an instant.

"And I returned you here, as you wished. However, your wish was before the King's death. It…was a selfish wish of mine also, when I first promised you we could live here." Maleficent sighed. "You are the Princess of that Kingdom."

"No I'm not. I'm not some silly Princess of some stupid kingdom. I'm Aurora. Aurora of the Moors."

"If you wish to renounce your claim, it will still have to be official. Otherwise, they may hunt for you. They may even come here. To the Moors." Maleficent knew she was goading Aurora and she felt the girl flinch in fear.

"They would've come after me even if my father still lived." Aurora argued back.

Irritation overtook Maleficent and she dis-entangled herself from the girl. "You think I particularly want to go back there?" she snapped. "To walls and chains of iron?"

"No. You'd rather stay here behind walls of thorns." Aurora let her annoyance at being discarded take over her. Diaval froze, his whole body tensing. If he still had feathers they would have puffed out in fear and protection. In 17 years he'd never heard anyone speak to Maleficent that way. A wind started up, rustling the leaves of the Oak.

Maleficen's eyes glittered green for a second. "As would you. But if you leave that Kingdom in chaos, then the chaos will spill over into the Moors, wall of thorns or not. And I cannot let that happen."

"You've protected them from it for all these years. You were going to let me come back here no matter what as long as my father lived and you didn't care about chaos then." Aurora reminded her, staring at the ground as the wind tugged at her hair. She felt petulant all of a sudden, irritated that she had risen to Maleficent's bait and angry that the bait was true, but also incensed that Maleficent saw this is a problem where she had not before.

"With your father alive, chaos would have ensued either way. With him dead and you alive, there is a chance…" Maleficent halted, attempting to collate her thoughts. "Look around you. You see beauty, true enough, but the darkness that followed the theft of my wings continues to stain it. The ways in which they have been protected have damaged the very being of the Moors. They are but a shadow of what they were." *and that is my fault* Maleficent thought to herself.

Aurora looked around her. The Moors were so beauteous, even in the day, that she could not imagine them being a mere shadow.

"If you take the role of Queen, there could be peace between the Kingdoms at last. No need for darkness, no need for a wall of thorns." Maleficent said in a persuasive tone.

Aurora frowned. "And if I don't?"

Maleficent sighed heavily. "They will come looking for you either way. Either to make you Queen or marry you or…kill you to ensure their own place as King."

Aurora looked truly shocked for the first time. "They would kill me?"

"They would have killed me, in order to be king! It is in the nature of men. Your father only took my wings; he could have easily taken my life. Although I am not sure that I wouldn't have preferred the latter."

Diaval grimaced at that, from his casually eavesdropping position. She did indeed understand.

"I'm glad he didn't." Aurora said softly. "I'm…not glad he took your wings. He shouldn't have done either but I'm glad…he didn't take your life."

Maleficent let out a breath and nodded. "Well…"

"I'm not going to become Queen of them." Aurora stated calmly. "I'm not. I don't think I could ever rule over such people."

"Faeries aren't exactly the best of characters either. And humans are not all bad…" Maleficent said weakly, realising even before she spoke that it was hardly an argument that would be swallowed, considering what they had both been through and seen in recent times.

Aurora shrugged at it though. "I suppose not. Phillip seemed nice enough. If a little…human." She fell silent for a moment. "Phillip…"

Maleficent's eyes widened imperceptibly and her heart beat faster all of a sudden. For all her arguing and reasoning, there was a strong and large part of her that never wanted Aurora to leave the Moors again. Would she do so for that little pup whose kiss could not even wake her?

"Phillip!" Aurora suddenly cried joyfully, clapping her hands together. "We must go at once to the castle."

Maleficent blinked. "Well. Yes. That is…"

"Will we fly?" Aurora interrupted her.

"As far as the edge of the forest. After that, it would be better for you to appear on horseback. Diaval can provide."

"Oh I can, can I? So much for not a servant." Diaval said sarcastically from his position at the base of the Oak.

"Quiet." Maleficent glowered at him.

"Why can't you fly me all the way there?" Aurora asked.

Maleficent could've laughed at her naivety. "Think of how that would look to the humans." She scoffed. "The Queen returning in the arms of the one who cursed her. Who murdered the King. Whose Dragon set the castle aflame."

"You didn't! He fell. He…"

"That is how it will look to them! They won't care that he fell. They'll make up their own stories rather than face their fears. Anything so they can hate the Moors. These are humans! For the Moors' sake child, think."

"I'm not a child. I'm sixteen now." Aurora huffed.

"Fine. Then make your own way there, if you are indeed so suddenly capable." Maleficent's bad temper was rising.

"You know I can't!" the young woman shouted in return

"Then Diaval will take you there." Maleficent finished smoothly. This got Diaval up again.

"Were you not listening earlier? You think I want to go back there either? We were lucky to escape with our lives. You freed me and I said I'd stay here. Here! Not go back to that place. You can find yourself another hor-"

"Into a bird!" Maleficent snapped with a wave of her hand and Diaval cawed loudly before flying off. She rounded on Aurora, who to her credit merely leaned back slightly. "Come." Maleficent uttered imperiously, grasping Aurora tightly to her before leaping off the cliff.

Even though she knew Maleficent was in a high fury, Aurora still smiled. She trusted Maleficent with her life.

"I can feel you smiling, child." Was shouted to her over the sound of the wind whistling past them.

"Not a child!" She grinned.

"You are far too trusting, just like a child."

"So were you once."

Maleficent resisted the urge to drop her charge. "Look where that got me."

Aurora glanced down at the wall of thorns as they flew over it and doubt tinged her heart as she thought of all she had learned. But Maleficent was Maleficent and her restored wings ate up the miles until they landed just outside the wood's edge.

"Well yes, that is one way to describe me. Another, used by you more recently, would be 'the evil in the world'." Maleficent replied to Aurora voicing her thoughts after they landed. Without Diaval, they would have to walk. "Not all Faeries are nice."

Aurora tensed up again at the unsubtle accusation. "I was angry. And I didn't understand. I thought you'd been toying with me. I didn't know how you felt. It felt like everyone had been lying to me my whole life."

"I did not lie, child. I just never told the truth." Maleficent chose to ignore the "how you felt" comment. That was a discussion for much, much later.

"It's the same thing!" Aurora sighed heavily.

"Not exactly."

"Well it is to me!" the urge to stamp her foot was resisted. Maleficent would probably only call her 'child' again.

Maleficent opened her mouth but closed it without saying anything and they walked on in silence. Well, Maleficent glided. Aurora felt like she was trudging. The morning had started off so well. She sighed frequently as she recounted the arguments in her head, wondering whether she had gone too far.

After an hour or so she was hot and nervous and hungry and Maleficent was still gliding silently. Aurora stopped and ducked into the shade of a tree at the side of the path, wondering when Maleficent would notice.

If she did, she did not stop and Aurora groaned and ran to catch up.

"Godmother…"

"Yes, child?"

"Maleficent then!" Aurora was getting wound up beyond belief at this. She had not experienced much anger or fear in her life and such large quantities over such a short period of time were beginning to affect her temper.

"What is it?"

"Can we stop? Please? We haven't a horse since you upset Diaval and I'm tired." To her ears it sounded whiny instead of a reasonable request.

"I could put you to sleep and float you there if you like." Maleficent was being distant and teasing.

"And how would that make any better impression than flying?" Aurora glowered at the Faerie.

Maleficent smirked. "I would wake you before we were in view."

Aurora had had enough of this and flopped at the side of the road once more. "I know you're scared." She muttered under her breath.

"Scared of what?" Maleficent's overly sensitive hearing picked up the mutter with ease.

"Iron. The castle. Humans." Aurora waved a hand in the general direction they were heading.

"And this surprises you?" An eyebrow was raised in mockery.

"Maleficent…" Aurora pleaded in a name. The combination of her name and the tone and Aurora's face caused the Faerie to finally accede and she sank to the ground beside her charge.

"A small rest then." She sat, using her hands to support her as she spread her wings out, rustling them as if they were stiff. Aurora wondered briefly whether they truly were, having been confined for so long or whether it was a display of agitation that Maleficent was attempting to conceal in nonchalance. Or indeed both.

They sat in silence for a while, before Aurora gently shifted herself until she was curled up to Maleficent's side. A wing came around her protectively, instinctively. Maleficent stared at her traitorous appendage before facing forward, glowering slightly, her lips pursed.

"I do not understand." She mused outloud.

"What?"

"I cursed you. How are you still able to wish to be with me?"

"Because you are also my best friend in the whole wide world. I was lonely until I met you. Pretty Bird was fun to play with but…"

"And that excuses everything?"

Aurora was silent for a moment, contemplating in their vastness, the reasons why she still wished to be with Maleficent. "Because you also saved me from the curse. And your curse saved me from my father. And the castle. I would never have seen the Moors if…"

"I think, dear heart, you would have found a way to them even if you had lived in the castle." Maleficent snorted. Aurora's innate curiosity was an endearing feature.

Aurora bright smile lit up her face. "I think I like that one." She grinned.

"What one? One of what?"

"Dear heart." She snuggled closer to Maleficent, who had frozen, eyes wide and staring blankly into the distance at the realisation of what she had said. Her own heart tightened for a moment and she took several deep breaths to recompose herself.

"What's wrong?" so close, Aurora could feel every move Maleficent made.

"I am…you are correct. I am…scared." Maleficent was inwardly amused that she wasn't lying but yet, not telling the whole truth either.

"It's okay. I have a plan."

"A plan." Maleficent gave in and wrapped an arm around Aurora, pressing ruby lips to golden hair.

"Phillip. He's the Prince of some country or other."

"And how do you know this?"

"I overheard the pixies talking whilst I was sleeping. I could hear everything, you know."

Maleficent felt her eyes water at how wide they opened. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt her lungs stop working. *that…is an unexpected fact* She chose not to pursue the implications at the moment. *Another conversation for later*

Aurora continued, feeling her Faerie's body become as solid as a board at that information. "Well, what if he became King of this one instead? He's already been brought up to it so I'm sure he'd make a good one. But he and I are friends, or at least…I think we are. So he'll be nice and leave the Moors in peace."

"And that is your plan."

"Well it's a lot better than me becoming Queen. I have no idea how to be one. And you said. You promised! You even said I didn't have to wait until I was older. I don't care if it was a selfish wish of yours or mine or not. It's not up to you. And I know more about the Moors than I do about humans or ruling them."

This declaration sparked an idea within Maleficent herself.

"It sounds convenient indeed. Are you so sure of Phillip's character after just one meeting?"

Aurora sighed. "I don't know."

"Very well. Do you mind if I add to this plan?"

"What?"

"You become the Queen of the Moors."

"What?" Aurora bolted up. *Is she proposing to me?* the idea thrilled and shocked her.

"As you said yourself, you know more about them. And then Phillip would be King of the human world and you the Queen of the Fair Folk and the two kingdoms would truly be united then."

"Oh! Oh." Her excitement died down slightly as she realised what Maleficent was getting at. "But…but you're the Queen of the Moors."

"And I have not made a good one. I was better as Protector and Protector I shall continue to be."

"So you will be like a knight of the realm?" Aurora's mind was working on this scenario.

"Not exactly. No armour or iron." Maleficent did not like that comparison. "I shall be a Protector."

"But you'll have to swear loyalty to me?" and coming up with some interesting results.

"Hm?" Maleficent was not on the same track.

"And be my subject and obey my orders and do everything I say?" Aurora's grin was so wide it nearly split her face in two.

"Hmph." Maleficent snorted as she caught on to what was going on. "I don't know about that." She stuck her nose in the air as a giggling Aurora flung herself back into Maleficent's arms, scrambling onto her lap, revelling in the physical closeness Maleficent seemed to be allowing since that effervescent hug. She reached a hand up to touch Maleficent's horns, ignoring Maleficent jerking them away irascibly. "I dub thee, Maleficent, Protector of the Moors, obedient servant to her Majesty, Aurora, Queen of the Moors."

"Yes, Beastie." Maleficent replied drily after a moment's silence, tempted to throw Aurora bodily out of her lap but enjoying the Beastie's attention too much. It kept the atmosphere light and stopped both of them brooding about where they were going. And certainly, Aurora's plan did seem a good one. After all, if Phillip and she did indeed get married one day…Maleficent bit off that train of thought as it pained her heart. "Are you rested enough to continue?"

"I suppose so." Aurora reluctantly wiggled out of Maleficent's lap and got to her feet, offering a hand to help the Faerie up that was promptly ignored. Wings flared to assist Maleficent upright. She sighed as Maleficent walked on ahead until she spotted a wiggling hand protruding from round the edge of a wing. With a laugh and a bound she caught up and grasped it tightly, feeling the wing draw around her protectively. She leaned into Maleficent's arm briefly to convey her happiness at this arrangement and they walked on.


	5. Into The Dragon's Keep

An: I am feeling the fire so have another chapter. I acutally have another two in the wings. Harr. Pun totally intended.

*dances with Disney singing I know youuuu I walked with you once upon a dreeeeam*

Chapter 5: Into the Dragon's Keep

The castle came rather suddenly into view, over a hill, round a corner and there it was. Maleficent stopped short, her hand going slack in Aurora's making the woman grasp it all the more firmly, eyeing her Faerie with a sideward glance.

A night was nowhere near long enough.

"It's okay. Don't be afraid." Aurora tugged at Maleficent's hand but the Faerie did not move an inch. "Maleficent?"

Every inch insisted she flee, every feather in her wings wanted to take to the skies.

"I can go by myself."

"No." Every thought in her head coalesced to that word immediately. She would never leave Aurora alone amongst humans. With a grunt of effort, she stepped forward and another step. They were both trudging now. Maleficent wished for her staff and instead grasped Aurora's hand more tightly, their palms damp from nervousness.

"What will happen when we get there?" Aurora asked.

"I…don't know. There are two reactions. One, they attack in which case we fly. Two, they are cautious and we explain and then leave. The second one will take longer, but may be more the worthwhile."

"It's still all covered with iron." Aurora looked up at the castle. It was deathly quiet, no guards were posted and there was no movement anywhere.

"I…know." Maleficent ground out.

"Can you feel it?"

"I am aware of it, yes."

Aurora noticed her Faerie's clenched jaw and tugged her hand to set them both moving across the bridge.

Maleficent thought she was going to be sick as they entered the castle. To rescue Aurora was one thing, to brave the iron in a fit of rage and sorrow but to sense it now, with fear predominant, made her tremble with the effort of keeping breakfast down. She suddenly wished for Diaval's presence, that she had not sent him away and made him so angry. His sarcastic bravery the night before had settled her nerves and a servant willing to be anything (except a dog) was a balm. She would not change Aurora into anything.

They paused in the doorway to the throne room. Maleficent shivered at the memories that returned, not only from the night before but the day she had laid the curse.

Blackened stone, iron and debris everywhere, smoke hanging in the air still. Hell was aptly furnished. Aurora coughed on the smoke, causing Maleficent to tense as it echoed through the air but there was no sudden thunder of soldiers.

"Where is everyone?" Aurora whispered.

"I don't know." her eyes darted constantly.

"They're all busy." A small voice piped up from some hidden place.

"Auntie Thistlewit!" Aurora gasped in surprise.

"Busy with what?"

"Laying out the king. Even though they hated him, he still has to be buried you know." Thistlewit flew out from beyond the thrones.

Maleficent looked at Aurora then and saw the tumult of emotions. Her father was hated, but then again, he had taken Maleficent's wings and tried to tame the Moors. Calm appeared at the end and she nodded.

"I suppose that is right."

Maleficent didn't bother to ask if she wished to go. Aurora owed nothing to the man who had not even hugged her when she had at long last returned and she would do nothing to guilt Aurora into thinking she did.

Thistlewit looked nervously at Maleficent. "So you revoked the curse then?" she asked in her heedless way.

Maleficent looked awkward. To confess that she had been one to break the curse…but did Aurora know what that would have required. Aurora had heard everything she had told her. Maleficent knew the Faeries knew about True Love's Kiss. "The curse is no more." She settled on. It gave nothing away. Aurora was staring at her curiously, of course the observant Beastie would have noticed the pause and if she did indeed know... So many more conversations and the ones they had covered so far hadn't particularly gone well.

"Hm." Thistlewit hummed. "Are you here to return Aurora as Queen? We all heard how you flew off with her. The humans are in quite an uproar."

"I am not here to be Queen, Auntie. I am here to revoke my claim and then I am returning to the Moors." Aurora stated calmly, in much the same way she had told her Aunties that she was moving out in the first place.

"Returning to the Moors?!" The sharp voice of Knotgrass sounded from the doorway and all three turned to her.

"Why ever would you want to do that?" Thistlewit looked exceedingly puzzled.

"Get away from her Aurora! Get away! Don't you know that's Maleficent? She's the one who cursed you, child!" Knotgrass tugged at Aurora's hand that still kept Maleficent's in its grasp.

"I know." Aurora said, still not relinquishing it. Maleficent kept a studiously straight and blank face as she heard Aurora's voice quiver with irritation at the word "child". To laugh now might not exactly smooth things over. Aurora glanced at her and squeezed her hand sharply. The Faerie thought her jaw might dislocate if she did not laugh and the tension overcame her and she threw her head back and laughed, teeth and fangs bared.

Knotgrass looked appalled and Thistlewit scared, both expressions did nothing to diffuse Maleficent's humour. Memories swirled of taunting and tricks played.

Aurora's attempt at a scandalized expression did not last long and she bit her lower lip as she giggled, Maleficent's laughter unsurprisingly infectious.

"REALLY!" Knotgrass cried, semi-hysterically and that set Maleficent off worse than ever. "Well I for one would think that CURSING A CHILD would be no laughing matter!" she screeched.

"It's not!" Aurora laughed. "It's not that. It's um…it is personal." She finished lamely. "We're not laughing at you. Or the curse. Or…or anything really." Maleficent's laughter died away.

"Absolutely nothing." She sniffed as she echoed Aurora, posing regally. Aurora deliberately didn't look at her, feeling Maleficent's eyes sliding towards her own. *no more laughter now* she gently squeezed Maleficent's hand to convey and after a deep breath the Faerie inclined her head in agreement. She was feeling wholly braver now.

"Where are the humans? We have a need to speak to them." Her voice was authoritative and strong. Aurora smiled to herself, reassured by the mere tone.

"Um. Well, as I said, they're laying out King Stefan and paying respects but I imagine they'll be back soon…" Thistlewit trailed off.

"You should…" Knotgrass started but quailed under Maleficent's stare.

"We should do nothing. Aurora is here to…" Maleficent stopped suddenly, aware that if she spoke it, it would sound as if she had stolen the child and bewitched her. These pixies were in with the humans, it was well to be careful.

"I am here to relinquish my claim to the throne and pass it to Prince Philip." Aurora finished.

"Oh yes! Prince Philip! Did you wish to see him? Did the kiss work after all?" Thistlewit squeaked.

"No." Maleficent said resolutely, earning her a confused stare from both the pixies. "Where is the third of you? Flittle of the Blue Butterflies." It was rare to see for the pixies to be separated and she wished to change the subject as much as she wondered whether the pixie was.

"She's talking with the human maids." Thistlewit replied. "I don't know what about it. Everyone's a little bit nervous today. She's probably trying to reassure them.

"As to be expected the morning after someone nearly burns the castle down!" Knotgrass said, glowering at Maleficent.

A face of injured innocence was given in reply. After all, that had been Diaval. She hadn't told him to start breathing fire, after all.

"Aren't you bothered by all the iron?" Aurora asked suddenly.

"You get used to it in the human world." Knotgrass snorted at her wayward charge.

"We were human for so long." Thistlewit sighed. "But we do feel it."

"What exactly are you going to do then, if not become Queen? Go off to the Moors with that…that…that! I suppose!" Knotgrass pointed at the horned Faerie beside Aurora. Their still clasped hands were noticeable even by such flighty pixies.

"She is to become Queen of the Moors, if she wishes it." Maleficent stated.

"Queen of the Moors?!" Flittle suddenly swooped in on the conversation. "You mean…"

"You're not going to be Queen anymore?"

"You're giving it up?"

The pixies crowded around Maleficent and she had to fight the urge to swat them away.

"Yes. The Moors will be returned to as they were." She shook her horns at them to disperse them.

"Oh. But they weren't particularly nice even then." Flittle sighed despondently and Aurora laughed at Maleficent's affronted scowl.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! OH!" Knotgrass exclaimed. "But if she is Queen of the Moors and Philip is King then the kingdoms will finally be re-united when they marry! Oh! No more wars! Oh this is a brilliant plan Maleficent!" all three pixies danced around them ecstatically at the idea.

"Wait! I'm not getting married to…" Aurora was bewildered and turned to Maleficent who merely shrugged in rejoinder. Aurora hmphed bad-temperedly and Maleficent's heart became that little bit lighter and a smile played at the corner of her lips.

"There will be time for that later." She put on her imposing voice again and the pixies turned to listen. "We need to meet with the humans in order to put such things in action. Can you bring them here? Promptly?"

"Of course!"

"Of course!"

"We'll get Phillip!"

"And the council!"

"And everyone!" they squealed in unison and flew off.

After a moment's slightly stunned silence, Aurora ventured "Well, that went well."

"Well, they haven't attacked us yet."

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Maleficent swiftly released Aurora's hand. At the young woman's wounded look, she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"Appearances, dear heart. This must be your decision." Her whisper soft as still night air.

Aurora's heart swelled at the use of "dear heart" and turned towards the footsteps, emboldened, standing to the front of her Faerie as if to defend her from any attack that might come.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Author Confession: I found Maleficent's laughter equally as infectious and choked on my porridge whilst writing it.


	6. Dreams of Peace and Love

An: Stuff will acutally happen beyond just talking in this fic I promise…

Disclaimer: *looks at Disney's wall of thorns I mean copyright longingly*

Chapter Six: Dreams of Peace and Love

Phillip appeared at the head of a mix of guards and Council members, the three pixies flying overhead.

"Aurora!" he cried happily as he spotted the young woman. "You are awake now!"

"Stop Prince Phillip!" The council members had spotted Maleficent and made to grab him.

"That is the witch who cursed her! Do not go near her!"

The alarmed cries of the council members caused Phillip to halt in his striding towards Aurora and he looked to Maleficent.

"I recognise you from the woods!" his face lit up in confusion. "And then…I was here." He puzzled.

"I brought you here, to see if you could break the curse." Maleficent informed him.

"I am sorry indeed that I disappointed you." He inclined his head in a bow. "I have heard the most confusing tales about the whole thing such that I am not sure what to believe." he laughed nervously and gestured aimlessly about him.

"Prince Phillip!" the Council chorused but Maleficent shot them to silence with a glare.

"We can explain everything." Aurora assured him. "Well, Maleficent can."

"Maleficent?" Phillip questioned.

"Yes. There are a few proposals to put forward too. If the council will convene and hear us, we may yet end this saga without further bloodshed." Maleficent had not taken her eyes off the Council who were muttering amongst themselves. She was waiting for guards and soldiers to be summoned, with iron whips and chains. She could feel again the iron net on her, burning her skin even as she tried to escape.

"Very well then. There is a chamber suitable for this?" Phillip turned to the assembly behind him.

"One without iron." Aurora chimed in. "And no traps." Maleficent smiled at her for her consideration.

"Well…yes…but…"

"This is most irregular."

"We do not deal with the Fair Folk!"

"Where are the guards?"

"We most certainly do not take orders."

"These are not orders." Maleficent's eyes flared. "They are requests. And proposals. For a new peace between our two kingdoms. With the presence of I, as the sovereign of one, and Aurora as the true sovereign of the other, I believe it possible that we can reach an agreement this day. Surely you must agree that this has gone on more than long enough."

There was more grumbling but it eventually turned to murmurs of consent. The Kingdom, or at least the castle, was in a state of disarray. Any order that could be brought to it was welcome, even if the means to it were not.

Aurora had not moved from her defensive position once throughout the interaction but as the most elderly man of the Council beckoned to them and the humans filed out the door, she risked a glance back at Maleficent. She wanted to take her Faerie's hand again but a warning look told her this was not wise and she gathered herself and took Phillip's proffered arm to walk out the door after them.

The pixies fluttered happily at this and Maleficent was sorely tempted to enact some mischief upon them for it but restrained herself. This was to be a meeting of peace and alliances after all. A show of magic would hardly calm tensions. She was amazed as she strode out at the acceptance of the Council but she knew little of human politics, only the treachery involved therein. This was hardly a reason to lower her guard however. She felt lonely without Diaval or Aurora by her side. And despite Aurora's excitement at becoming Queen, would she truly accept such an offer? The human world was rightly hers and it was Maleficent's fault it had not been.

Her thoughts darkened her brow and she brooded as she flinched away from scattered iron on the way to the chamber. *it could still be a trap.*She would not be fooled into trusting humans one inch.

They continued to surprise her throughout the meeting, accepting with little protest Aurora's appointment of Phillip, although the Prince himself was a little astounded.

*Of course they would prefer a king.* Maleficent thought snidely as she sat near the door. This was Aurora's moment and she kept in the background to minimise her involvement.

Aurora spoke most meaningfully of her own appointment as Queen of the Moors, detailing her attachment and knowledge, yet knowledgeably avoiding Maleficent's involvement in it. The way in which she described how the kingdoms could unify with such Monarchs at the head, with the friendship between them, was eloquent and Maleficent found herself more surprised by her Beastie than the council members.

"Not a child" Aurora mouthed at her during a moment where the rest of the assembly were busy discussing things at the end of the table, having noticed Maleficent's appraising gaze.

"And you would be content with such an arrangement, Queen Maleficent?" a council member piped up and they all turned to look at the Faerie.

"Indeed. I will even take down the wall of thorns, although the borders will still be protected."

More muttering ensued and her sharp ears thought they heard the word marriage mentioned more than once.

"And what would your role become?"

"As already said, I will continue in my role as Protector." She was growing bored of this now, the same details being confirmed and confirmed again.

"And your father would be happy with such, Prince Phillip?"

"I imagine he could not go against another Monarch's appointment. And I am but a second youngest son, it will not leave Ulstead without an heir. It would also strengthen ties between this Kingdom and Ulstead, something which can only lead to prosperity."

More hashing and rehashing and flittering around like damn pixies. She quelled an urge to fiddle with magic, play a few tricks.

"Perhaps we should adjourn for now. It has been a long morning and I'm sure we could all do with some refreshment." Phillip seemed to pick up on the increase in Maleficent's temper, even from across the room. Perhaps it was the unsubtle green-ish golden glow around her. Aurora shot him a grateful look. "This afternoon then, gentlemen? Ladies?" he bowed to the parties and they left, still a-bustle with such an idea.

"Lady Aurora…" A council member approached the young woman. Maleficent could sense what he was going to say and intervened, standing up and walking over to her.

"The Lady Aurora, I am sure, would prefer to take a break also from the proceedings." She flexed her wings meaningfully and the council member fled.

"He was about to ask me about my father." Aurora stared thoughtfully after him. "Do you think I should go see him laid out?"

"I think that is your decision." Maleficent shrugged. "I do not see that you have any duty to, but if you feel it might bring your heart some peace, by all means."

"Do you not wish to see him?" Aurora asked, earning herself a glower. She did not back down however. "You…"

Maleficent turned in a sweep of robes and stalked out the room in a temper. *Curse inquisitive Beasties!* she snarled to herself before remembering she had done just that once upon a time and immediately regretted storming out. A patter of footsteps behind her told her that Aurora was not giving up still and she halted and turned as her Beastie flung herself around the Faerie.

"I'm sorry Beastie." She rested her chin on the young woman's head and stroked her hair, her wings surrounding them both.

"I'm sorry too." Aurora burrowed into Maleficent's embrace. "I don't want to see him."

"Nor I."

"There was too little and then there was…too much."

"You did well in there, Beastie." Maleficent changed the subject in hope of cheering her with praise. "Your eloquence surprised even me."

"I can't do it half so well as you, when you act all imperious and commanding though. I can't make them listen."

"You are sixteen, for all you are not a child. I have had years. Years and years." Maleficent stroked Aurora's cheek gently to soothe her.

A cough distracted them and they did not exactly spring apart but certainly released each other quickly. It was Phillip.

"The kitchen staff laid on some tea and lunch, if you wish to partake of it." He said, his eyes sparkling slightly in amusement but royal breeding keeping his tone light and polite.

"We…" Maleficent halted suddenly. She was still speaking too much for the both of them.

"We'd be grateful." Aurora finished for her and held out her hand for Maleficent's. The Faerie raised an eyebrow and instead offered her arm, much as Phillip had earlier. This earned her a grin as Aurora took it with mock grace and gentility. Even Phillip stifled a laugh as the three of them headed towards the dining hall.

"Do you think the Council are happy about the proceedings?" Aurora asked Phillip as they walked, the swish of Maleficent's robes a pleasant backdrop to conversation.

"I think they are surprised, I too. And it will take a while to receive confirmation from my father. But he is a good king, wise and fair. He sent me here to see the King so that I might talk with him about calling off the war with the Moors. An ambassador if you will, as a third neutral party. But he will be happy to see me settled in a kingdom; I cannot imagine he would complain."

"Nor I." Maleficent said lightly, the snide undertone only vaguely showing through. Aurora elbowed her for it all the same.

"This kingdom has suffered much under Stefan's rule. His predecessor was at least clever enough not to let the kingdom rot or torture it with such a vendetta. It will take a lot of work." Phillip let out a breath as he looked around the iron locked castle.

"Do you feel up to it? The Council may be traitorous. They have been before." Maleficent warned him.

"And yet they did not overthrow Stefan, despite his ineptitude and treachery. They seem loyal enough to whomsoever holds the throne." Phillip shrugged.

"He continued the previous King's desire to overthrow the Moors. A more pacifist King might rile them." The Faerie reminded him.

"Then I will deal with it. I do have some training you know." Phillip smiled disarmingly at Maleficent. "There are traitors within every court. Besides, they are elderly and could do with retiring. Recruiting a new council for a new King and new Kingdom will be easy enough to enact. I will request some loyal support from my father also. I cannot imagine the inhabitants of the Kingdom will object much. I would think they yearn for peace much the same."

Maleficent was impressed despite herself. Phillip was young and came across with his excessive politeness as a bit of a ditzy pixie but he had a brain on those shoulders and would not be crossed easily.

"And what about you Aurora? When do you plan for the coronation to be? I would like to attend if I may. It would show everyone that this is the future." Phillip said.

"Maleficent?" Aurora turned to the Faerie.

"When I have taken down the wall and returned the Moors to their former glory. There is much to do there as well. This conflict did not leave my own Kingdom untouched." Guilt stained her voice and she fell silent.

Aurora longed to hold her Faerie but with Phillip there, she reluctantly settled for squeezing her arm tightly.

"We will inform you of the precise date." She smiled at Phillip.

They had reached the dining hall by this point and further discussion was saved for later. Aurora fell upon the food with as much grace as her hunger could muster but Maleficent lurked by the door way. She felt nervous again and wished to shadow Aurora, to protect her or be protected by her she could not tell. Instead she watched Phillip walk among the Council members, speaking his ideas and reassuring them without promising.

*Truly if those two married, war might never darken these kingdoms again.* Maleficent mused. *They have the power between them to bring such light to the world.*

The thought merely depressed her further but she did not dwell on why that might be and instead reclined against the wall with her eyes closed, slipping deeper into murky thoughts.


	7. Let The Walls Fall Down

An: I am highly dissatisfied with this chapter but I think it's the best it's going to be so I'm posting it.

In Disney we trust. Well, at least accede that they own Maleficent.

Chapter Seven: Let The Walls Fall Down

Aurora touched her arm lightly, unsure if Maleficent was asleep or not. Her eyes opened slowly but they were clear and she roused herself upright, spreading out her wings to dispel the stiffness that had worked in from leaning on them. The council members looked round nervously at the sound of air being displaced by the massive appendages.

"The Council have decided there is no need to reconvene. Messengers have been sent to Philip's father. They have invited me to stay here until it is fully resolved but I've told them there are things to do in the Moors also. Can we leave now? Everything is in hand here, as much as it can be." There was a pleading in her voice. Aurora was not fond of the iron in this castle either.

"If Philip is in agreement?" Maleficent looked over Aurora's shoulder to where the young Prince was standing at ease.

"I am fully capable. I shall send word immediately when my guards arrive and when I receive word from my father. In the meantime, I can set the soldiers to the better task of clearing up this mess." He gestured at the castle at large.

"If you are sure…" Maleficent was suddenly uncertain of leaving the young cub to fend for himself although where this concern for the human had come from she had no idea.

"If you do not hear from me within two days, then assume I have been overthrown already and send reinforcements to rescue me." He jested, with a serious look in his eyes.

"Very well. Then we shall take our leave. Send word with the pixies." She turned to go then stopped. "Actually better not. I will…send a messenger as soon as we reach the Moors again." Maleficent dipped her head and walked out the castle, Aurora following her, shouting goodbyes to Philip.

"My plan went rather well." She smiled at Maleficent as they headed onto the path, the late afternoon sun causing the Faerie to spread her wings to catch the warmth. A light breeze rustled the feathers together, making a sound like grass fields in a high wind.

"Better than ever I expected. You and Philip are quite the charismatic couple."

"Hmm." Aurora mused. "They wish for me to marry him."

"Well you did entrust your Kingdom to him." Maleficent pointed out as she meandered to avoid a sharp rock in the dirt.

"You're entrusting your Kingdom to me but I don't seem them expecting me to marry you." Aurora jibed back, moving out of the way of wings. Maleficent's eyes widened and she coughed, almost tripping.

"Such things are for the future. There are more important things to consider in the meantime." The Faerie attempted to shrug it off nonchalantly.

Aurora's eyes glittered slightly; she had noticed the unsubtle stunned expression and she grabbed at Maleficent's robe to make the Faerie face her.

"Yes?" she raised an eyebrow, wings betraying her nervousness.

"Up. Up!" she grinned and Maleficent sighed, taking Aurora in her arms and with a strong heave of her wings that sent the loose dust scuttering, they were airborne.

"How much did you eat at that lunch?" Maleficent shouted over the cooling wind. "You're heavy."

"I'm sure your wings are strong enough." Aurora laughed back, resisting the urge to kick her legs in delight. "Did you not tell me that they never faltered?"

Maleficent grinned in reply, showing her fangs and gained further height, swooping to make Aurora cry out but only succeeding in eliciting laughter. The more intense aerobatics were impossible with a passenger but she still managed lazy loops and barrel rolls to garner whoops of joy and exhilaration from the young woman.

It was a much more relaxed journey back to the Moors and when they arrived at the Oak in the early evening light, breathless with laughter and relief, Diaval was there, hopping from foot to foot and cawing at them.

"Into a man." Maleficent gasped and he fell from the branch onto the ground.

"Well and just where have you two been then?" He sounded like a parent whose children had been out all night as he gathered himself upright.

"To the castle! It's all alright Diaval. Philip is to be King of the Human World and I am to be Queen of the Moors!" Aurora danced her pretty bird around the cliff top in joy for the second time that day. "Maleficent is going to take down the wall of thorns and everything will be bright again." She collapsed onto the grass, leaving Diaval staggering once more.

He turned towards Maleficent, who stuck her chin in the air to defy him.

"Well, that all sounds mighty good then." He eyed her warily.

The chin dropped. "I have…a favour to ask."

"Oh aye." Diaval mock frowned at her, still not satisfied after the morning's affray.

"But first, an apology to offer. For my behaviour this morning." She inclined her head in a bow towards the Raven who felt slightly uncomfortable at such a gesture even as he would wish for it.

"Well, I'm sure we've all been through a lot." He shrugged it off, wanting to return to normal now. "What's the favour?"

"Would you fly to the castle and keep Philip company? He is requesting guards from his father and expecting a reply back as to his appointment as King. Will you be my wings once more and tell me of the news? I will write a letter to explain to Philip, that you can carry with you."

Diaval still looked wary, unsure as to the whole of the situation. Maleficent explained it to him, detailing their morning spent wrangling with the Council.

"Please Diaval. You are my trusted wings." She said seriously and Diaval felt himself fall for the flattery because of the truthfulness within it.

"Oh all right then. But I'll only stay until the guards arrive. I…started building a nest in the Oak and I'd like to finish it." He turned his eyes downwards, slightly embarrassed at the liberty he had taken in their absence and his incensement.

Maleficent's eyes flared but she said nothing as she reached into the tree to grasp at parchment and pen, scratching a few words of explanation on a parchment. She rolled it and then turned to Diaval once more. "Into a bird." She said softly, giving him time to prepare himself for once. He landed on her outstretched hand and she placed the scroll into his claw. "Fly safe and true, my loyal wings." She brushed her lips softly against his crown and if a Raven could blush, Aurora could have sworn he had done so. His cheek feathers puffed out and he pecked Maleficent affectionately before flying off.

"I think you made him blush." She teased Maleficent, standing next to her on the cliff edge as she watched Diaval wing away.

The Faerie shrugged. "It is true. He has been as loyal and dependable as my own wings are, in their absence. He has never failed me." She smiled. Aurora could see she looked slightly exhausted now, the energy required for the day's events draining out of her. "One last chore for the day and then I shall rest." She acknowledged Aurora's worried gaze. "Stay here and watch." She smiled and dove off the cliff, heading for the centre of the wall of thorns in the early evening sunlight.

She hovered for a second, revelling in her wings that she could undo the magic from the sky, seeing it all as it fell and then reached down with her fingers and unhooked it, flying along the line to watch it recede and then flying back along as it crumbled into dead wood with a thunder-like rumble. It would collapse fully by tomorrow, turning into debris on the forest floor. The land itself would take longer to heal from the harsh magic but she hoped that she could assist it as she made her usual rounds to heal. She was exhausted now, undoing such a great feat of magic was not a light task but her wings carried her true, back to the Oak and she stumbled amongst the branches to her old bed, far too small for such a large faerie. Her wings hung over the edge as she curled on her side before draping back over her.

Aurora climbed up beside her, looking at her Faerie as she slipped towards sleep, curled up amongst the branches. *She looks so at peace.* Aurora mused, wanting to join her but not sure if she was allowed.

A wing unfurled and an arm extended and with a grin Aurora slipped down into the comfortable embrace and they slept to pass the time before Diaval's return.

Aurora woke before Maleficent, just before dawn with a raging hunger due to dinner having been skipped in favour of sleep. She wriggled out of Maleficent's embrace with some difficulty as the Faerie initially clasped her tighter and wouldn't let go until Aurora gently stroked her hair and horns, soothing her back to a deeper sleep. This made the young woman smile as wide as the ocean but of course she would never tell Maleficent. Climbing down the tree barefoot, she nearly dropped right on top of a small winged elfin Faerie dressed in a rather ragged tunic and carrying a basket full of food.

"Hello." She smiled, always happy to make the acquaintance of the Fair Folk. "Who might you be then?"

"Robin." He put down his basket of roots and berries and stared up at her suspiciously.

"Hello Robin." Aurora smiled her smile at him. He didn't seem particularly taken by it.

"So you're the wee cursed beastie that Maleficent has brought back from the human world." He flew upwards and circled her slowly.

"Yes. I'm Aurora." The young woman in question was confused. Most of the Fair Folk she'd met had been shy but friendly, even the ones Maleficent had warned her "have a bite." This one seemed slightly…intimidating despite his smaller stature.

He hmphed at her slightly and landed, glancing upwards at the tree.

"She's not up yet." Aurora explained, wondering if this Faerie had come to see Maleficent. He'd even brought breakfast it seemed. "She brought down the wall of thorns last night and we were at the castle as well…"

Robin glowered at her as if this was her own personal fault and she shifted uneasily, feeling guilty at some unknown sin.

"If you are the cursed child then you are kin of he in the castle that caused Maleficent to go dark?" the accusatory tone made her feel even worse.

"Yes." She answered truthfully, despite it.

"He who married the daughter of the dread-spawn that killed Maleficent's parents and waged war upon the Moors." Robin's eyes glittered balefully. It wasn't a question.

Aurora's mouth dropped open and tears sprang to her eyes. *Maleficent's parents…* "Wh…what?"

"Your grandfather. He was the one who killed her parents." He picked up the basket again and flew into the air, hovering in Aurora's face. "She fought him most bravely herself, sending him back to his castle broken and defeated. But she trusted that little jewel thief far too much and he stole her wings, murdered the king in his sick bed and married his daughter to legitimise his claim. And had you." Robin sniffed. "And then she went to the dark and I have not seen her for nigh on two decades. So if you'll excuse me." He flapped past her and flew further up into the tree, leaving Aurora gulping air. She had accused Maleficent of being the evil in this world for cursing her but…and that was her family, was it?

She turned and fled. And Maleficent knew. She must know. Of course she knew, the Faerie, Robin, had said she'd fought her grandfather herself. Tears streamed from her face as she ran through the small woods on the cliff, feeling unable to face Maleficent in the light of this knowledge.

Maleficent woke sharply. She had felt the loss of Aurora's form in her arms but had settled back down but now the young woman's presence was receding. She could feel it, as she always had been able to since she first brought Aurora to the Moors and she could sense the upset and turmoil. She opened her eyes and saw Robin. Suddenly the upset and turmoil was her own.

"I brought you breakfast. All your favourites." He ignored the petrified expression on Maleficent's face. "Word is going around the Fair Folk, rumours abounding about what's been happening, with you flying thither and yon and the wall coming down." He fished for the tale as he placed the basket by her.

"Where is Aurora?" A sudden fear gripped her. Robin didn't like humans.

Robin looked at her and then sighed wearily. "You are your parents' daughter. Fair Folk shouldn't care so much for the wanderings of humans."

"Where is she Robin?" she stirred to her feet, flexing her wings as he didn't deny the accusation in her question.

"She went into the woods for a while. Probably to clean up after sleeping." He tried for nonchalance.

Maleficent shook her head and made to move past Robin but he touched her arm gently.

"You could probably do the same." He brought forth a gown, similar to the one she was wearing.

"Then it was you that brought it to me after I bathed." Maleficent eyed it but did not move. She wanted to go after Aurora.

He nodded, his curiously floppy ears flapping as he did so. "I missed you when you went to the dark. But then it was all around the Moors how your wings had come back and I figured you weren't there anymore. And now you've even brought down the walls. Maleficent, leave the human be, there are more important matters. The Moors are in uproar. What does this mean? I know you're our Protector and Queen and we trust you to look after us but does this mean there's peace? Is it over? The pixies returned telling of curses and kisses and dragons before fluttering off again and we have no idea. Well, we knew about the curse, what with you cackling over it. And we know about the girl, due to her wanderings. But we're sorely lacking in some detail. Will you call a conclave?"

"You call it; gather representations from each at the Drachkarach stone, where the throne is. I will attend shortly and explain my intentions and plans." Maleficent jumped down from the tree and left him there with a downward thrust of her wings.

"Well…and a nice to see you to, child." Robin shook his head and fluttered off to send out the call.

Inside Aurora's head an argument continued. *How can she even look at me, knowing that? Knowing who my father was, my grandfather…* she stumbled and barked her hands, grimacing at the sting of the grazes on the heels of her hands and on her knees. *how can she want me to be Queen of the land that my ancestors tried to destroy? It doesn't make sense.*

A flapping noise behind cause her to turn and Maleficent swooped down through a gap in the canopy to land beside her. She appraised the tear-stained eyes and the muddy bleeding hands with an odd look in her eyes.

Aurora's lower lip trembled under such intense scrutiny and then with a rush all the emotions of the past few days caught her and she wept unashamedly. Maleficent twitched awkwardly, unsure of how precisely to comfort her Beastie. A little voice came into the back of her head, the soft "up. Up." echoing through the years and she picked Aurora up bodily, one arm under her knees, the other under her arms, cradling the young woman to her. She shushed her gently, pressing lips against Aurora's mussed hair, as she rocked her. Aurora clung to her as she sobbed, finding it ironic in the back of her head that the very person she'd run away from was now comforting her. It seemed to be becoming a habit of their relationship.

With a few token sniffs, she let her head fall heavily against Maleficent's shoulder, sliding her arms around the Faerie as she began to walk back through the woods. Sunlight dappled through the leaves and created a strange flickering pattern that lulled Aurora into a trance, accompanied by the smooth gait of her Faerie.

"Robin is among the Faerie who brought me up after my parents were killed in the war." Maleficent said quietly as she felt Aurora settle. She guessed that the cause of Aurora's upset was something he had said. There had always been little that Robin could hide from her. And anything to do with Maleficent seemed to cause Aurora to have an extreme reaction at the moment, possibly to little surprise. They came across a small clearing and she halted. "He is…protective of me and distrustful of humans."

"I never even thought to ask about your parents." Aurora still sounded distraught but Maleficent couldn't really tell as her face was buried into the crook of her neck.

"Did you think I was born from a seed?" she jested, hoping to raise a laugh. "Or that I was always this big and terrifying?"

Aurora's mind boggled slightly at the thought of Maleficent as a child but she shook her head.

"Could you fly well as a child?" She was unsure why this was forefront in her mind, perhaps because the feathers of the Faerie's wings were brushing against her hands. She shifted her head until her chin was on Maleficent's shoulder, looking backwards at the calm woods, a few Faeries flitting through, doing unknown duties.

Maleficent hmphed as if she'd been caught out. "I got better at it as I got older." She confessed. "Just like humans do when they are learning to walk. But once I had mastered flying, I was the most graceful and strongest of all." Her tone was not bragging but glowing with pride.

Aurora looked sideways at the most graceful and strongest of all Faeries, resting her cheek on Maleficent's collar bone.

"Are there not others like you then? Like your parents?"

"…yes. But they do not live here in the Moors." Maleficent hesitated only briefly.

"How come I never saw Robin before? If he raised you…" Aurora sensed a tricky subject and steered away from it, accidentally falling into an even trickier one.

Maleficent gently dropped Aurora to the ground. The young woman kept her arms around the Faerie's neck, not wanting to relinquish the embrace fully but this irritated Maleficent who shrugged her off and stalked a little way across the clearing, stopping in a beam of sunlight that lit up all the tawny colours of her wings. Aurora's face scrunched up, both at having been let go and the slightly blinding aura.

"We did not talk after…after my wings were stolen." the faerie said. "I was ashamed at having trusted a human. Robin had always told me they could not be. After all, they were responsible for my mother and father's deaths. But I had gone against him anyway. I did the only thing I could, I fled the Moors. How could I explain the loss of my wings to him? To anyone? I only returned because I knew Stefan would come after the Moors. He'd stolen from here as a boy after all, as a king…?" Maleficent fell silent. *and of course that is why I fled just now from him.* she thought to herself, realising that concern for Aurora had only been half the reason for her behaviour. The intense conversations with Aurora were beginning to exhaust her slightly and she could've done without Robin showing up.

Aurora did not ask the next question that sprang to her mind, her other ones not having caused the best scenarios. She missed her Faerie's warmth, having had it so little and wanted it so much. *do you trust me Maleficent? You must do. You brought me here after all. Or was that a test? To see if I would steal as my father had? And did I prove you right or wrong when I was enchanted by the Moors? But how could anyone not be…but why would they wish to take it…I don't understand.*

"What is there to understand?" Maleficent turned and raised an eyebrow. "He was a human. It's what they do. Particularly the men. Robin is right in that respect."

Aurora started; unaware she'd spoken that last thought out loud. "It wasn't that."

"Oh?"

"I just don't understand why anyone would want to take the Moors, to take from the Moors… they're so beautiful like this. As they are."

"To take is to possess. To own. Humans value that kind of thing." Maleficent shrugged.

"Do you think of me as human…or as Faerie?" Aurora felt stung by all the talk of 'humans' but then again, she'd never really met any. Her Aunties were pixies after all. She was Aurora of the Moors or so she felt. She strode over until she was right underneath Maleficent's nose. "Do you trust me? Truly trust me? Or is it all just a test? Bringing me here to see my reaction, waiting to see when I'll flee? Giving me the crown to see if I'll take over the Moors and hand it to the humans? Do you want me to prove you right or wrong?" it all blurted out in a rush.

Maleficent's eyes gleamed gold and in reply she merely bent down and pressed her lips to Aurora's forehead before striding off and disappearing into the woods.

Aurora touched the tingling place where Maleficent's lips had been. "That's not an answer!" she shouted at the Faerie's retreating back.

She turned around herself and sat down in the middle of the clearing, flinging herself amongst sparse fallen leaves, reminding her of when she used to play in blossoms and leaves as a child.

*What does she want from me anyway? To crown me Queen, what does that even mean? I'm not Faerie, I'm not magical how could I possibly hope to rule the Moors…*She recalled the excitement, the childish excitement she corrected, she'd first felt at Maleficent's offer but now, facing it with more reality, she couldn't see how it would be possible.

"Word to the wise, little human child." Robin dropped down beside her head. "Don't ask so many questions all at once. There'll be time enough to sort through these things. You're rushing her and there are more important tasks to be done right now."

"You were spying on us! What kind of Faerie are you? And I'm not a child." Aurora was incensed.

Robin merely laughed at that. "You're sixteen, sweet thing. I was there when Lysander and Hermia were killed and I raised their child, who herself has outlived two human kings. And I was not the youngest sprite even then. The three traitors you call your aunties are longer lived than they look. Most of the Fair Folk are. At sixteen, you are still but a child. And she thinks to make you ruler of us to appease the humans." He laughed, a little unkindly. "Well, I suppose such a gesture might help."

Doubt crept into Aurora's heart and blackened it for a moment. Was that truly Maleficent's objective? To make her a token queen? She could be little else as a human Queen in Faerie land. Maleficent had more important tasks to see to? Well of course she did, she was both Queen and Protector of the Moors. She had seen the opportunity to make peace and when Aurora had foresworn it, had adapted it to still work. Would she be with the council members cheering a marriage to Phillip, all in the name of treaties and peace? If this was royal life, then hang it.

And yet. Her forehead still tingled from the kiss. And she remembered the kiss that had woken her from the curse. Maleficent had braved iron for her, had wanted her to come back to the Moors. *It was a selfish wish…* the words re-echoed in her head. She broke out into a smile, confusing Robin who had wished to drive her further away and then dashed after her Faerie.

Maleficent's cheeks burned slightly, but whether in anger or embarrassment she couldn't tell. She hadn't meant to kiss the woman again but it was the only thing she could think of after such a tirade. What else could possibly reassure her? She cursed Robin mentally but for now there was a conclave awaiting and she had to go. There were bigger things at stake and if she sorted it out now, then there would be a life time to work out personal issues.

By the time she got to the Oak, there was a raven cawing in it, flapping around desperately in the branches. She waved her hand and he had to grab hold of a branch and swing down from it. More than a decade and a half of such happenings had made him nimble and he dropped gracefully down by her side.

"Well, that's more like yourself I do say. Where's Aurora?"

"Changing." Maleficent did not specify in what way she was changing, letting the Raven jump to conclusions. Aurora seemed to be growing up mighty fast, unsurprising given the events. But the questions she had asked had unnerved Maleficent. Did she truly think that Maleficent didn't trust her? After the conclave, she was going to sit down with the young woman and have a conversation. "What news from the castle?"

"Phillip is to be King. His father sent word with great haste, with agreement and confirmation of guards and preparations are already in order for a coronation."

They both turned at the sound of footsteps and a voice called out from amongst the trees.

"Maleficent. Maleficent! Mal…" Aurora trailed off as she saw an unexpected but welcome sight. "Diaval!" You've returned already?"

"King Phillip's father sent a hasty reply." The changeling bird grinned at her as she rushed to embrace him, causing Maleficent to turn away and gaze over the Moors.

"King Phillip?" Aurora's eyes widened. "His father agreed?"

"And the Council seems perfectly happy with it for the time being. Guards are still journeying here of course, under pretext of overseeing the coronation but yes. He will be crowned King." Maleficent told her what Diaval had explained from her position at the cliff edge, frowning as she saw the crowds at the throne.

"Preparations are beginning already. Your plan is working brilliantly." Diaval looked at her, expecting a return smile but instead a thoughtful look clouded Aurora's face.

"He will be a good king for the humans, I think. He's been trained to it all his life." Her gaze sank to her feet. "It's what he is meant to be."

Diaval glanced at Maleficent who was studiously ignoring the young woman by staring off at the horizon. He picked up easily on Aurora's downcast mood and in all her life time, there had only ever been one cause for it, only one thing strong enough and powerful enough to overcome Flittle's blessing of happiness every day. And thus he turned to Maleficent.

"What have you been saying to her?" he spoke with an accusatory tone at the Faerie who was staring out over the Moors.

A huff of air was his only reply. "Robin has returned. I must speak with him. And all the old family. Stay here with her, Diaval." was her only reply before spreading her wings and diving off the cliff.

"Wait…what? Mistress!" Diaval called after her, using the old term in his confusion at being ordered again. He turned to Aurora. "Whatever's been going on here?"

Aurora moved slowly to the base of the Oak and sat down.

"I met the Faerie who raised her after my grandfather killed her parents." She stated simply. "I wonder why all the Faeries I've met in the Moors have always liked me, considering that."

"They don't know, probably. For years, you've been nothing but a wee human child. A peasant girl." Diaval flopped down beside her. "Or maybe it's part of the curse."

"What do you mean?"

Diaval hesitated and then recounted to her the blessings of the pixies, and Maleficent's full curse.

"But the curse is broken now. Does that mean I will no longer be beloved by all?" Aurora mused, resting her chin on her knees as she hugged them.

"You'll always be beloved by me. And Maleficent." Diaval put an arm around her and hugged her close to him.

"Do you truly think that?"

"Of course!"

"How can Maleficent…how can she though? It was my grandfather…my father…" Aurora gestured hopelessly.

"I think she wonders in the same way at how you wanted to come back here as she was the one who cursed you. But it was True Love's Kiss that broke that curse and don't you forget that." Diaval batted her on the nose with his finger. "And True Love can overcome quite a lot of things, in the end."

"Robin said I ask too much from her. I ask the wrong questions. We argued all the way to the castle or so it seemed." She sighed.

"Robin?"

"The Faerie who raised her. He was quite mean about me. Well, more truthful. About my ancestors. But he said I was rushing her too much."

"Aurora, I'll let you in on a secret." Diaval smiled at her. "Maleficent, for all she's big and scary and magical, is only one Faerie. And in the course of less than a week, she lost you to the curse, saved you from it, fought through iron, regained her wings, saw an old love fall to his death, brought you back here, brought you back to the castle, created a lot of temporary peace where there was a chance of another war and then brought you back here again and took down the wall of thorns. And now it seems she's flown off to deal with the Faerie side of it. Do you not think that maybe you are rushing a little, considering the amount going on that's rushing already?"

"I asked her if she trusted me…" Aurora bit her lip, suddenly realising that that had been a very unfair question. People did not brave iron and take down walls they'd put up for sixteen years for people they didn't think were worth it.

Diaval winced. "What did she say?"

"Nothing. She just kissed me on the forehead and then walked off."

Diaval looked Aurora, stunned. And then promptly burst out laughing as if she'd just had mud flung in her face. He rolled on the grass with it and Aurora felt like hitting him then.

"What…" she tried her best to sound haughty like Maleficent could. "What is so funny?"

She succeeded in making him laugh more at any rate.

"You two. You're hopeless." He wiped his eyes as his laughter subsided.

"Well I don't know! A lot's happened to me too you know! I've found out that I've been cursed my entire life, that my father was still alive, that…that my whole life has been a lie. That Maleficent was the one who cursed me. That my aunties are really pixies. That I'm a princess! I've been saved. I've seen my best friends fight and nearly die and scary castles and I've had to deal with…with people! Stupid people! Who just argue constantly about the same things, over and over. I hope Phillip likes the human world, he's welcome to it. And my favouritest person in the whole world, even though she cursed me, won't tell me what she's up to, making me Queen."

Diaval had the grace to look shame-faced. "Well, we've all been through a lot recently."

"I know. I know you have too. I'm not…I'm not stupid. Although I feel like a stupid human right now." She sighed.

"Well…at least you're arguing about different things rather than the same stuff over and over?" Diaval pointed out.

"What does she want me to do?" Aurora sighed again.

"Stay with her here in the Moors, I think." He ventured. Of that he could be certain.

"Then why did she try and make me be Queen of the human world?"

"It was where you would've belonged. Guilt, basically." Of that he was almost certain.

"But I don't. And anyway, that's all sorted now. And what does she mean by making me Queen of the Moors."

Diaval shrugged. "Maybe she means for you to marry Phillip. That would truly unify the two kingdoms."

"I don't WANT to marry Phillip!" Aurora all but shouted. "And besides, how are all the fair folk meant to just accept a human queen? I'm not like Phillip. I haven't been brought up to be a king or a queen or anything. All I know is that I want to stay with Maleficent here in the Moors and if Maleficent wants that too then she should just SAY that. But I don't really belong here do I…"

"Well I'm a changeling raven so I'm not entirely sure I'm welcome here but as a changeling raven it's about the one place I have so I'll take it."

"Where's she gone Diaval?" Aurora wiped her eyes, where tears were forming again.

"I don't know." His face fell. "And I don't even have wings right now to go after her."


	8. A Heart's Shieling

AN: I think this fic is being affected by my mood swings. One day I will write a chapter where they're just like…calm. Ahahahah. Probably. Not ever…Anyways!

Disclaimer: DISSNEEEYYYY! *shakes fist*

Chapter 8: A Heart's Shieling

Maleficent was still resplendent even her sleep and travel ruffled robes and her wings added the crowning majestic touch as she looked at the assembled Fair Folk, types of each kind surrounding the twisted bark throne. She had explained to them here how humans were coming for war and how she was Queen and would protect them, as her parents had. That had been after Stefan's coronation.

Now she told them of Phillip's upcoming coronation, that a peaceful King might have at last found their way to the throne. She spoke of the coming down of the wall, informed the border guards to start their patrols once more and diligently for this period of peace had only just begun and was not to be taken lightly. She told them, to gasps, that she was relinquishing the crown. However, they had lived without a ruler before, after her parents had died, and humans had infiltrated if not outright attacked. The Moors had been weakened. Therefore, if they consented, a ruler they would still have in the human they had come to know and love, the nights and days she strayed to the Moors.

"You know her." Maleficent spoke truth, in order to persuade. "She has proven herself kind and trustworthy, unlike the other humans. In either case, she has requested to stay here, to live here. I believe, with her as a ruler, we may have an ambassador to the human world that they will not fear, that indeed is related to their old bloodline. And with Phillip on the throne, a friend to her at this moment, such a ruler could bring true peace between the kingdoms. If you will not accept her as Queen, then let her live here as she wishes at least." Her shoulders sagged. The Fairy Council had been quieter and surprisingly less argumentative than the human one but still, a lot hung in the balance. All she had was her authority as Protector.

Balthazar spoke first from his position at the edge of the gathering, representing the Border Guards. "We trust you Maleficent, and if you trust her, she can stay."

The Border Guard's faith struck a chord and they all spoke up then. "Of course she can stay."

"She's been nothing but nice to us."

"She's our friend."

"She's fun to play with. We want her to stay."

"She even plays with the Wallerbogs." A prim fairy turned up her nose at the squat creatures who blew raspberries in return.

"And as Queen?" Maleficent asked.

Silence fell once more. A human ruling over the Fair Folk went against everything in their history. Flighty but not fools were the Fair Folk. And they were long-lived enough to remember.

She was surprised when Robin spoke up. "Would you teach her how to be Queen? Would you be Protector still, if she fails?"

"Of course, if you accept me as it. It is my intention certainly." She assured him. "I do not foresee her failing."

The firmness in her voice caused rustling among the Fair Folk. "With the proper training." A water sprite whispered in agreement and it ran around the gathering as they all agreed.

"Then I will start her training as soon as possible." Maleficent inclined her head to them and they dispersed, splashing, flying or merely walking away. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"Do you intend to make a changeling out of her?" Robin asked, fluttering over to her side.

"I…do not know." She replied, sitting on the throne awkwardly. It had not been built to accommodate her wings.

"If you wish…"

"I do not know." She re-iterated firmly, cutting him off. "And even if I did, it would be her choice."

"She cannot be with…"

"I know, Robin. I know." She rubbed her temples where a headache was forming. There was so much to consider, both personally and for the Moors, large and small.

"We're long-lived species." He continued anyways. "You let a human steal your heart and he stole your wings along with it. I wonder what you will lose this time."

Maleficent smiled ruefully through her fingers. "You have become cynical in your old age Robin. Time was when you would play tricks from dusk til dawn."

"Even the flightsome Fair Folk remember what they have lost." Robin alluded to the loss of her parents.

"I know. I saw that in their hesitation. But it is well. Thank you for speaking up." She curled her legs up to her chest, looking small and childlike for a moment. The old Faerie sighed, his wings folding along his back as he slouched. "I could do no more for you, child. I could do no more."

Maleficent grinned, showing her fangs. "Aurora complains when she is called that. She thinks sixteen is such a great old age." She shook her head in amusement at the young woman.

Robin grinned back. "Well we know there are greater ages, don't we. And I will always be of the greater age and therefore you will always be the child I looked after." Maleficent looked uneasy and Robin picked up on it in a heartbeat as he realised the resonance of his words. "Many kinds of love there are. I…" he paused. "I would take heart that she does not wish to be a child to you."

Fizzing green eyes turned to fix on him and wings flared as faint rose coloured high cheekbones.

He merely laughed at her glowing eyes "You cannot scare me like that child. I helped to teach you how to use those." He gestured to her imposing wings.

She spread them wider and used her bent legs to jump start her into the air and took off back to the cliff, Robin's laughter echoing in her ears, her heart burning in her chest but lightly.

"I'll talk to you later then." He called after her. "Ungrateful beastie."

She saw Diaval and Aurora curled up at the base of the tree and wondered what they'd been talking about. Her, probably. They watched as she dropped in front of them and just stared at them for a while. Two of the closest to her heart, at the heart and centre of her. As much as they could wound her with words and questions and the truth, they were her protectors as much as she protected the Moors. Diaval's head tilted questioningly at the prolonged silence.

"It is agreed by the Fae Conclave. You may stay here." She announced.

Aurora started. She had not even considered that there was a Faerie Council let alone that she would need permission to stay. She wondered what Maleficent had had to do to bring it about. Had she argued? Persuaded? She shifted uncomfortably. Diaval nudged her as Maleficent regarded her curiously.

"Um…thank you." She stared at her feet.

"You do not have to stay of course, but if it is still your wish…" Maleficent took her hesitation to mean she had changed her mind, quite possible after all their arguments.

"It is! It is!" Aurora sprang up in alarm.

"Then you may stay." Ruby lips twitched in a grin. "You too Diaval, although that went without saying. They are…contemplative of a human King who means for peace but willing to give it a chance. And if you accept, then we shall begin your training to be Queen, Aurora."

"Hn?" she made a noise of confusion.

Maleficent raised an eyebrow and grinned wryly. "Surely you did not think I meant to crown you today. The Fair Folk are flighty but not as impetuous as the humans. For all your forays into the Moors, there is a lot to know about its inner workings. Secrets to be revealed, ways to be observed, all of which you are to be entrusted with before a coronation. The Moors do not need a ruler the way the humans do, they can survive quite well enough while you learn."

"Because they have you." Aurora grinned, earning herself a nudge from Diaval.

Maleficent's wings rustled in her awkwardness. She suddenly felt the weight of years of expectation. She had always looked over the Moors, ever since she could fly. She had always been respected for her judgement, later feared for her power. Could the Moors do without her? Well, that was for another day. For the time being, the success they'd had in the past few days was enough and she told Aurora as much.

"Therefore, I think we shall begin your training in earnest tomorrow. For today, we shall rest." Aurora's stomach growled in agreement and she smiled, reaching up into the branches for the basket Robin had brought. Aurora looked at it nervously. "I'm sure he'd not be offended." Maleficent lounged on the grass at the base of the tree, waving a hand to indicate they should help themselves and both Diaval and Aurora fell on the food.

Aurora wanted to apologise for doubting Maleficent but she felt that for the time being, there had been quite enough quarrelling and misunderstanding and whilst there was food, she didn't have the heart. It was delicious too; she hadn't ever tasted such roots.

"Robin grows them himself, I believe." Maleficent told her, sensing an enquiry in a surprised mumble. She ate with far more finesse and leisure and Diaval and Aurora finished most of the basket. Maleficent raised an eyebrow regarding the two of them. Diaval had lain back on the grass in human form and was dozing off and Aurora was attempting wipe berry juice and blood off her hands.

"You are quite filthy." The Faerie observed. "Time for a bath, me thinks."

Aurora looked up. She'd had baths in the Moors before, when she'd got covered in mud and the water sprites had cleaned her off in the river.

"I'm not carrying you like that though. We shall have to walk." Maleficent reached out for her staff and then realised she had dropped it that night at the castle. She'd have to send a messenger to Phillip, to see if it was still there. After sixteen years it had become quite precious to her. Aurora's face fell but she got up and brushed herself off as best she could. Maleficent took her down the cliff via the secret path cut into it and Aurora wondered if this was knowledge for her to learn. She wondered even more when they crossed the dancing river, waving at the Wallerbogs and water sprites as she did so. But the midday was cool and the earth felt delicious under her bare feet so they walked on in silence with only the swish of skirts and wings to accompany them.

*They really do drag on the ground.* Aurora observed as she walked behind the Faerie, being careful not to step on them.

Maleficent herself was allowing her mind to calm down from the hectic events of the past few days. A lot had been achieved and walking instead of flying allowed for a contemplative atmosphere. It was such a raw hope, this peace. It had been imperative to act quickly, to think quickly and she wandered over conversations, thinking perhaps that those should not have been rushed in the same way. And yet they were equally necessary and as Maleficent looked back at her young woman following, she felt her heart swell with gratitude that the outcome of the process was that Aurora was staying in the Moors. If she had decided to become Queen of the humans, if she had left…Aurora looked up and caught her eye, smiling as if to reassure the Faerie, as if she read all her doubts in her look and Maleficent continued on as dirt turned to the smooth rocks that surrounded her bathing place.

Aurora gasped as they moved through the ferns to the water's edge. Most of the pool was surrounded by smooth rock, interrupted only by a small waterfall cascading in and a small ford where the river flowed out again. The water looked deep and dark but there was a small incline at their feet, where small silvery darts of fish came and went in the shallow water.

"This is beautiful. What is this place?" Aurora breathed.

"This is my bathing pool." Maleficent replied, gracefully ridding herself of her gown, leaving her in only trous and a support, much to Aurora's consternation. She felt even her ears glow red. Before, the water sprites had cleaned her with her clothes and as Maleficent unwound the support she turned away, biting her lip. Laughter made her turn back round again and she flushed a deeper red than Maleficent's lips at the sight of the half-naked Faerie. She swallowed and tried to even out her breathing but Maleficent was truly beautiful to behold and now seeing her she couldn't look away.

"Have you never had a bath?" Maleficent's fangs were showing again. She was amused by Aurora's study of her.

"Of course I have! But usually in a tin tub not…not like this." Aurora gestured around the pool, suddenly looking everywhere but at the Faerie as Maleficent fully disrobed.

"Oh come on!" Maleficent walked to the pool and sank into it, her wings keeping out of the water. "There, is that better?" the water did not fully mask her body but it provided some cover. "Now come and get clean, else I won't fly you back." Aurora started to walk towards the water. "Beastie." She looked up. "You'll drown in that dress. Straight to the bottom."

With a sharp inhalation Aurora turned away from the Faerie. "Well don't look then!" This earned her another laugh but when she looked, the Faerie had her eyes covered with her hands. She unbuttoned herself and stood out in her short pants. Maleficent peeked but was unobserved in doing so, so it didn't really count. With a huff of air Aurora removed those too and then darted into the water with much splashing, causing Maleficent's wings to rise out of the way of the water droplets.

"Better?" the Faerie smirked at her as she stood with only her head above water. "I can still see youuu." She taunted, waving her fingers to cause water to spray gently in Aurora's face.

"AhhH!" Aurora shrieked in surprise and slipped on the uneven bottom and submerged completely. The strong arms of Maleficent hauled her back to the surface, spluttering and flailing.

"Can you not swim, beastie?" laughter tinged her voice.

"I've never had much of a chance to find out, living in a wood." Aurora rubbed at her eyes.

"Come on." Maleficent took her by the elbows and guided her out to the deeper part of the pool. Aurora kicked slightly when her feet left the bottom but otherwise let the Faerie take her out. "Now breathe in and hold it." Maleficent instructed. "Then put your head underwater."

Aurora plunged underneath, Maleficent's grinning face appearing in front of her a few seconds later, slightly distorted through the water. Their hair floated eerily around them. She let go of one of Aurora's arms to point down and a stream of bubbles escaped the young woman's mouth as she attempted to gasp in surprise. The fish down there were huge! And she could see Maleficent's toes, where her legs were dangling in the water, suspended as she was by her wings. She'd never really contemplated Maleficent's toes before; even when she had seen her Faerie walking barefoot they had been covered by her gown.

The Faerie followed Aurora's gaze and realised what she was actually looking at. She wriggled them like little fishes and Aurora looked up and swallowed a lot of water. For the second time, Maleficent hauled Aurora to the surface, grinning lazily at the coughs and splutters.

"You were meant to be looking at the fishes." She admonished in jest, caused another splutter.

"Your feet were in the way!" Aurora protested, squeezing at the arms that held her to amplify it.

"My feet are never in the way." Maleficent mocked hurt.

"Well they were still there." She pouted, kicking her legs gently to support herself.

"They tend to be." She dead-panned. "My wings may have once been stolen, my feet thus far, never. Although if you are so fascinated by them, I shall keep a watchful eye."

Aurora felt almost maroon and then it all faded. "You made a joke." She swallowed nervously.

"Yes." Maleficent looked up to the sky in slight wonder at such a fact. "Possibly a little too soon."

"I would never steal your feet." Aurora said earnestly. Maleficent stared at her for a second and then laughed, throwing her head back causing a small shower of water from her horns.

"I believe you Beastie." She moved her hands to clasp Aurora's, tugging them apart in order to move closer to the young woman and pressed ruby lips to steal Aurora's Kiss. Aurora grinned at that and at the rather adoring look of pride in her Faerie's eyes. She clasped their hands even tighter and attempted to swim in a circle, almost kicking her Faerie by accident.

"What are you doing?" Maleficent was nonplussed.

"I'm…trying…to dance…in water. It's very difficult." Aurora gave up and let go of Maleficent's hands, leaning back and floating in the water. Maleficent's head tilted to one side and she counted in her head.

She got up to nine before Aurora realised and flailed about in sudden panic.

"You were floating quite beautifully there Beastie until you realised you were." Maleficent laughed as she caught Aurora's arms to steady her.

"Well I don't have wings to keep me afloat. Don't you wash them as well?"

"Of course." The Faerie was affronted at the notion that she wouldn't. "Take a breath."

Aurora complied without thinking and Maleficent tucked her wings tight close to her body and…dived. Bubbles streamed from her wings as all the air trapped in them was released. She kicked her legs strongly behind her and used the arm that Aurora was not attached to, to propel herself down. Aurora helped, mimicking her Faerie's actions. A dark blue fish with electric blue eyes and wing like fins glanced up at them and swam around them in greeting, nibbling at Aurora's toes, making bubbles erupt as she giggled.

She stared down into the depths, where fronds were waving gently in the currents, in awe of the giant creatures that swam amongst them. One made as if to dart towards them but Maleficent waved a hand and bared her teeth in a scowl and flurry of bubbles and it receded back into the depths. Aurora's lungs started to ache and she tugged on Maleficent's hand, pointing to the surface and mouthing what was surely now her token phrase.

*Up! Up!*

Maleficent nodded and they swam back up the surface, Aurora gulping down air as she broke it, clinging to Maleficent's arm.

"Is this a secret that has been revealed?" she asked when she was able.

"Well, I certainly don't broadcast my bathing place to everyone. But yes. In a way. To show that there are always depths to explore."

"Are they dangerous?"

"If they're riled." Maleficent pulled Aurora idly back to the shallower water. "But for the most part they live their lives as part of the nature of things and don't particularly bother anyone. Except smaller fish." She grinned her fang revealing grin as Aurora managed to touch the bottom of the pool again. "Even the water sprites don't bother them too much for some of them have quite fearsome teeth." Aurora examined Maleficent's own quite fearsome teeth as if to compare. "Even worse than these, Beastie." She mock gnashed them, making her laugh. "And now to clean you." She waded to the edge of the pool where there was a pot of boiled soapwort leaves hidden in a dent in the grass. "Come here." She beckoned imperiously, pouring the solution into a cupped hand, before rubbing it into Aurora's hair. "Scrub yourself all over." She commanded, doing the same for her own hair and body.

The lather made Aurora's skin tingle and she imagined she could almost feel the dirt being pulled away from her body. When she was thoroughly covered all over, she dived back into deeper water, splashing and ducking to rid herself of it. Maleficent took to the air after she was done until she was high in the sky and then barrel dived into the pool, very near to Aurora, causing a giant wave that knocked the young woman off her feet. She surfaced, spluttering, her hair covering her face like a curtain and she pulled it aside to glower at the cackling Faerie.

"Very funny."

"I certainly thought so."

"How do we dry ourselves off anyway?" Aurora started to wring at her dripping hair before noticing several blue faeries skipping towards them. "Oh!" she gasped softly as they began to dry her hair, combing it. It tickled slightly and she had to hold herself to keep from wriggling.

"They are the most efficient at making hair beautiful." Maleficent shrugged as two other sprites dealt with her. "For the rest…" she said when they'd finished and walked to the edge of the pool. "I use this." And she waved a hand at herself and Aurora, drying them instantly. At the edge where their clothes were, were two fresh robes and trous.

"Magic too?"

"More likely Robin. He asks of the Lady." Maleficent proffered the smaller of the robes to Aurora. Bashfulness had long since evaporated and Aurora couldn't help but watch as Maleficent dressed herself, using magic to close the robes around her wings.

"You're staring, Beastie." Maleficent turned to the still half naked woman who hurriedly shrugged herself into the robe. "Hm. It fits and suits you well." She made a pleased affirmation.

"Who is…" Aurora started and then stopped, Robin's words echoing in her mind.

"The Lady? She is a…provider of sorts. A manipulator of raw natural magic."

"Like you?"

Maleficent laughed. "My magic is highly refined, through my body. She uses the magic already in the world, in nature. Similar to the water sprites and the others who help keep the natural world in order here. The plants that grow here are not native to this World and would have a hard time without the likes of the sprites and the Lady."

"So the Lady can create clothes out of nothing?"

"Out of what there is already within the Moors. And they are magical raiment, easier to glamour and adjust. When they are finished with, the magic dissolves back into the World, to be used anew. Raw, powerful, natural magic. It happens outside the Moors, just at a rather slower rate." Despite the fact that Maleficent had told her the training would begin tomorrow, Aurora's questions were turning a bath into a lesson. *Such unrestrained inquisitiveness…* Maleficent smiled to herself.

"What do you mean by your body refines your magic?"

"It is like a personal touch. My magic takes on aspects of my personality, my feelings. It is raw magic I was born with but its strengths and weaknesses are governed by my sense of self. Magic is very sensitive to moods."

Aurora was taking a moment to digest this information when suddenly, a pixie crashed into their path, flying straight into Maleficent.

"MALEFICENT! COME QUICK! HUMANS! HUMANS, MALEFICENT! AT THE BORDER!" she screamed in terror, clutching at Maleficent's robes and trying to tug her along her.

Horrified rage etched itself in an instant on Maleficent's expression and she spread her wings in a green haze and took to the skies.

"Go back to the oak, find Diaval and STAY THERE!" she turned to shout back to Aurora before following the hysterical faerie above the canopy and out of sight.

AN Extended: I just have this small thing in my head that Robin used to call Maleficent 'Beastie' whenever she'd been naughty as a child. If y'all ever read Peter Pan y'all will know exactly what Kiss it means. If not, then there is a Hidden Kiss that is situated, perfectly conspicuous, at the corner of every mouth and Peter Pan usually is the one that can steal it but apparently Maleficent can too. Yay!

Author's Confession: *distant evil laughter*


	9. To Carry a Stick and Shout HIYAAHH!

An: Thank y'all for the reviews and the kudos and the comments and favourites and follows. Hot damn! It makes me so happy! So happy that I felt bad about the cliff-hanger so here is a short chapter before I go to work. Yay for Aurora swinging a stick and going Hiyahh! It's short one and I feel that is your lot for a while until I get up to speed nana nana. Peace out yo.

Disclaimer: My attempts to take Disney's castle failed. They still own everything.

Chapter Nine: To Carry a Stick and Shout HIYAAHH!

Left alone in the woods, Aurora started shaking in terror. Was it Phillip? Was it soldiers? Had something happened? Had Diaval returned too soon? Questions spilled in a never ending supply. There was a rumbling around her, causing the ground to shake and she turned and fled back to the Oak, climbing with tearing speed up the path Maleficent had shown her, arriving sweaty and gasping to find no Diaval.

"DIAVAL!" she shrieked, looking to the woods and the skies, even though she knew him to be in human form. She looked out across the Moors and saw birds clattering up in lines converging towards the border. She saw Maleficent swoop down and disappeared below the tree line and her heart seized. "DIAVAL!" she called again but there was no reply. She hesitated for a moment. Maleficent had given her instructions.

But Maleficent was not here. And neither was Diaval. She had returned to the Oak per the first, but the second had been to find Diaval. She suspected the changeling raven had heard the panic of the faeries and had gone to the border. Well, if she had to find Diaval then to the border she would go also. She scrambled back down the cliff path and set out towards it.

The rumbling around her grew louder and she crouched behind a tree as a giant boar with a Border Guard thumped through the woods. She didn't recognise the Guard but called out all the same.

"Please! Wait! Can you take me to the border? I have to find Maleficent!" she shouted, running out from her hiding place. It turned to her and she swallowed hard, suddenly realising that if patrols were looking for humans, then they'd just found one. It grunted in a deep throaty loam sort of way and moved off again. She had no idea what it'd just said but decided to follow it anyway. There appeared to be no objection from it as she stumbled in its wake.

She looked at its huge spear and stopped to search for a broken branch that she could use as a makeshift club or weapon.

The Boar and its Guard waded through a swamp and Aurora followed it, cursing a little at getting so dirty again, although a rather detached part of her mind was not objecting if it meant she had another bath with Maleficent. She frowned at it for being so distracted at the moment and as her thoughts coalesced on Maleficent she strode on all the more determinedly.

The Border Guard had long since disappeared into the distance but she could still hear it. She was beginning to appreciate precisely how large the Moors were when you didn't have wings and you wanted to get somewhere quickly. She heard a disturbance to the left of her and grasped her stick firmly. If it was a soldier, then it was going to have a bad day. A figure came running out towards her and she swung her stick.

"Aurora!" it ducked and rolled to the side.

"Diaval!" Well that was the second instruction obeyed at any rate.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. She could sense him fluttering as he would do if he was in bird form.

"I'm going to the border! There are humans!" She felt like dancing from foot to foot herself.

"Armed with a stick…" he stilled for a second as he took in her weapon.

"Have you got a better idea?" She hefted it meaningfully.

"…no." Diaval swiftly located a stick also and they set off at a run towards the border.

"Do…you think…it is Phillip?" Aurora panted slightly.

"Not a clue." Diaval wheezed in reply.

"It…better not…be." She snarled and on they ran.

The Border Guards had been the ones to first spot the humans approaching and they amassed in a great line, waiting for the shadow of her wings. Long had it been since they'd had cause to rise up and they creaked in anticipation as Maleficent swooped down and landed in a heavy crouch in front of them. The humans by this point had spotted the looming hulks and had stopped rather suddenly where they were.

Maleficent frowned. Something was wrong. There was no glint of metal, no sign of armour. And the group was not large enough. She waited as a horse detached itself and rode forward, recognising it as Phillip.

"Maleficent!" he called out in greeting with a smile, the horse shying slightly at the Border Guards, so he dismounted, removed a long parcel from its back and sent it back to the group.

As attacks went, it was not the most frightening and Maleficent raised an eyebrow.

"Phillip." She nodded. "What brings you to the Borderlands?"

"We…that is to say the soldiers found this when cleaning up the castle." He withdrew the wrapping from the package to reveal her staff. "I wanted to formally return it to you." He bowed onto one knee, offering it up to her.

She blinked at him and then inhaled sharply and held it as her mind raced through the situation. *Right.*

Phillip nervously eyed the Border Guards as they stared at him but did not move.

Her mind screamed that it was a trick, but there was nothing she could detect, even with a brief flurry of magic so she grasped her staff once more, feeling the familiar weight of it in her hands.

"Thank you." She said gratefully, meaning it.

There was a smattering of nervous applause from the human contingent as they observed the interaction. Phillip rose up again with a smile.

"Good day to you and your people." He bowed.

"Likewise King…"

She was interrupted by what could only be described as a hollering whooping battle cry of "HIYAHHH!" and two unidentifiable mud-covered creatures raced out of the woods, brandishing weapons, heading straight for Maleficent and Phillip.

Human guards rushed forwards, drawing swords. Border Guards raised their spears.

"PEACE!" Maleficent's voice reverberated with far more effect than Phillip's "HOLD!" but both cries were listened to.

Maleficent swiftly disarmed the two figures with a sweep of her staff. She recognised the two of them and had to bite back a laugh.

"I appreciate the effort, you two, but what exactly are you doing?"

"Aurora?" Phillip startled slightly as he too recognised the young woman. His manners stayed further comment about the precise state of her robe and hair. Running through marshes and woods was not good for a graceful entrance.

"We…ah…" Diaval sniffed to regain his composure. "We came to um…see what was happening." He finished lamely, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"We thought there was…something wrong." Aurora quailed slightly under Maleficent's stare.

"King Phillip was returning my staff to me, in a gesture of peace." The Faerie explained.

"Ah! That's…" Aurora looked to Diaval for support.

"…good!" he nodded. "I'm sure ye are glad to have it back."

"Indeed." With a strong attempt at keeping her face straight, Maleficent turned back to Phillip.

"My apologies. They seem to have…" she glanced at the pair and then at the branches on the ground. "…grasped the wrong end of the stick."

Phillip burst out laughing. "Quite all right." He grinned then became serious. "Next time, I shall send an envoy ahead so the visit is less of surprise." He realised the slight palaver caused despite his good intentions.

"That would be extremely welcome."

"Until next time then." He waved to Aurora, bowed again to Maleficent and headed off back to the contingent.

Despite the friendliness of the meeting, Maleficent did not dismiss the Border Guards until the group had disappeared into this distance. When they were creaking back into the woods and marshes, she turned to Aurora and Diaval, standing shamefaced, staring at their feet.

"I think…" Maleficent started, looking upwards in order to avoid their expressions. Bursting out laughing might offend. "That one of your first lessons as to how to be Queen should be how to fight."

Aurora had expected an admonishment on her behaviour and was startled. "Fight?"

"Yes. You have proved you're valiant but leading the Border Guards into battle requires a little more than a stick and a yell. Particularly as you have no wings as yet." Maleficent's smile curved across her face. "Yes." She mused almost to herself. "And you will need a token in order to summon the Border Guards if necessary."

She picked up Aurora's fallen stick and enveloped it in golden magic, shrinking it and shrinking it until it was a small whistle pipe.

"Border guards!" she called out and the cry reverberated throughout the Moors. "Hear this noise and know that in the future, when you hear it, it is the call of the Queen for assistance." She blew a sweet trill and there was an answering roar and then silence. Maleficent fashioned a black leather cord and strung it through the hook she had created on the back of the pipe before placing it around Aurora's neck.

"Blow this only in times of war or trouble. The Guards will deal with individual intruders and will send Faeries to raise the alarm. Also, as Protector I will be looking out. But if I am not there, then use this and they will answer your summons. You understand?" she placed a hand on Aurora's cheek.

Aurora nodded.

"Good. We shall also have to teach you the language but I think that is enough excitement for one day. And apparently you need another bath." Part of Aurora's brain danced in glee. "You too, Diaval."

"I'd like to be a bird for that, if you will." Diaval protested. He disliked human baths immensely.

"As you will." She waved a hand at him gently and he flew off.

"Let me guess." Aurora sighed. "You're not carrying me like this?" she gestured to her filthy robe and marsh spattered face.

"I shall make an exception, seeing as it is rather a way to the pool." Maleficent grinned and gathered up her brave human.

"I'm sorry." Aurora sighed.

Maleficent shook her head before taking to the skies. "No, dear heart. You have shown great courage in defending your Moors." Aurora's heart sang at 'your Moors'. "That is not a thing to be sorry for. Although, if it had of been an attack I would've preferred you at the Great Oak."

"You've fought in battles." Aurora protested.

"And I would fight them all again, if only to keep you safe."

"Surely I'm safer at your side. And besides, I said that I would come live here in the Moors and that we could look after each other. How am I looking after you if I let you fight all by yourself?" Aurora argued as she settled into Maleficent's embrace.

"I would have the border guards." The Faerie pointed out but it was a small reply. She was touched by Aurora's bravery and hugged the young woman tightly to her as she took to the skies.


	10. To Learn Of Me And Mine

An: This is gonna be a very fastforwarding chapter because in my head the Malora happens by Chapter Thirteen which means I need to get some stuff done and also if I write out everything that happens I will end up with a novel and I already have a novel that I'm not writing because I'm writing this soooo. Yeah.

Disclaimer: *singing* Disney don't sue me…don't sue me…no more. Disclaimer: Disney have never sued me. Disclaimer: Catherynne M Valente owns what she owns also.

Chapter Ten: To Learn Of Me and Mine

That night Maleficent had one of her nightmares. She was curled up with Aurora, as was to become the norm every night from then on, and it was Aurora who was awakened by the muffled snarls and beating wings.

Confusion swiftly dissipated into concern and horror.

"Maleficent?" the name still sounded odd on her tongue but was intriguing all the same. "Maleficent! Diaval!" she called up to the Raven who was sleeping in his almost completed nest. Maleficent had even loaned him some down from her own wings to line it.

A sleepy caw was her only response and she took a deep breath to lessen the panic. It was a nightmare and a bad one. She felt instinctively it had been brought on by the events of the day.

"Maleficent." She reached up to touch the Faerie gently on the shoulder, scared of rousing a reaction but none came, not even wakefulness. Emboldened, Aurora started stroking her Faerie's hair, making soothing sounds. She inched even closer and shifted to cradle the horned head in her lap but in doing so she accidentally brushed against the great wings. The moment happened so fast she was barely aware of falling as she was struck with a wing horn and thrown out of the hammock like nest Maleficent had enlarged so they could sleep together.

"Oof!" All the wind was knocked from her as she landed in a heap on the ground, thankfully avoiding branches, rolling a little way before scrambling to her feet.

"BEASTIE?!" a raw scream of horror sounded from the branches.

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" she called back as a highly panicked Maleficent thumped down from the tree and landed in front of her. "I'm okay." She reassured, reaching out to the Faerie who recoiled. Wide yes scanned her to check for any wounds and they found the scoring mark that the wing horn had made, ripping through Aurora's gown. Aurora followed her Faerie's eyes.

"It's nothing! It's fine." Aurora couldn't stand the look in Maleficent's eyes as the Faerie collapsed onto her knees, wings drooping around her. She slowly walked over to her, giving her ample time to flee. "I'm okay." She squeezed the Faerie's hands, careful to avoid any contact with her wings. "It's okay."

"It's not." If the guilt in Maleficent's eyes had been bad, the deadened coldness in her voice was ten times worse.

Aurora cupped the Faerie's face, forcing her to look at the young woman. "It is if I say it is." She stated firmly, kissing Maleficent on her forehead, slightly amazed at her own daring at doing so. The Faerie looked up at her with a slightly stunned expression and Aurora grinned despite herself. "You can kiss it better if you like. Diaval told me that True Love's Kiss can heal quite a lot."

Maleficent's eyes narrowed slightly but she stood and gently took the wounded arm in her hands and laid a golden kiss on the cut. Aurora felt the tingle of healing magic as it mended the skin and she bit her lip to keep from giggling at the tickling. And the fact that Maleficent had taken her at her word.

"There." Maleficent stared curiously at her Beastie.

"Not even a scar?" Aurora asked.

"Indeed not." The Faerie sounded offended.

"Hm. A scar would've been dashing."

"No it would not." Maleficent hmphed, turning to ascend the Oak.

Aurora stared at her arm. "What were you having a nightmare about anyway? The Moors being invaded?" Her precious Beastie did know how to play with fire. "Or was it about your wings being stolen?" And fan it into an inferno. Maleficent trembled. She had been thoughtless, sharing a bed with Aurora, thinking perhaps that the young woman's presence would stop her nightmares. It was inevitable they would be discovered and she cursed herself for her weakness as tears rolled down her cheeks.

She heard the young woman get up and approach her softly from behind and made a concerted effort to steel herself but the emotions of the past few days got the better of her. She brought a hand up to her face to hide it, palm outwards as if ready to strike.

Whatever course of action she had expected Aurora to take it had not been for the young woman to gently place her own hand, palm to palm with Maleficent's, not attempting to move it away but merely supporting it. Maleficent clasped it in response, staring at Aurora from behind the joined hands. Still the young woman waited for Maleficent to move. She took Aurora's hand and gently kissed it on the knuckles.

"Thank you…Beastie."

Aurora couldn't help but grin at the endearment. "You're welcome. Mally."

The Faerie's head jerked backwards in shock and affront. "Mally?!" she asked in disgust, dropping the young woman's hand.

"Do you not like it? I thought I should come up with a new nickname for you." She teased.

"Mally?!" Maleficent merely repeated.

"Mallea? Mallei? Lefi?"

"No. No. And no." the disgruntled Faerie took flight back to their bed.

Aurora huffed and followed her back up. "Well what would you suggest then?" she asked Maleficent's back, the Faerie having curled up in a ball away from her.

"None of those." was the reply.

"How about…"

"Aurora." The stern tone was enough to silence the young woman and she carefully curled up, back to back, careful to avoid the wings, feeling slightly bereft of Maleficent's embrace. She'd only slept in it twice but already she craved it as normality. She shivered slightly in the chill night air and curled up even tighter, lying there listening to the soft snores of Diaval and the utter silence from her Faerie.

"Maleficent…" she whispered after a while, turning to look at the wall of feathers that hid her Faerie. She resisted the urge to stroke them to gain attention. "Maleficent!" she hissed louder.

This garnered a terse "What?" in response.

Aurora was unsure how exactly to phrase her request but luckily the Faerie raised herself onto her hands and knees and flopped back over on her other side, an exasperated look on her face but with arms open. Aurora grinned and kissed Maleficent swiftly on the nose, earning her a disgusted sneeze as she dove quickly into the embrace before Maleficent could change her mind.

They woke the next morning to find that word had spread fast around the Moors of the escapade at the Borderlands. The charge of Aurora and Diaval had escalated to heroic standards which amused Maleficent no end and she spent several days asking Aurora if certain rumours that she overheard were true. Aurora retaliated by coming up with even more ridiculous nicknames to hide her embarrassment at such a sudden elevation to hero status. But hope sprang from the respectful if intense meeting that indeed this could be the start of peace.

They developed a small routine, as much as routine could be developed within the Moors. In the mornings, after breakfast, Maleficent would fly Aurora over the Moors before walking together to the Border to check on the healing of the Earth there, Maleficent helping it along with her magic. If it was raining they merely walked straight to the Border, Maleficent holding a wing over Aurora to keep her dry although the young woman would usually dance around in the rain. On a rare occasion, she could convince the Faerie to join her and they would share a treasured laugh. Maleficent's true laughs were rare and each time Aurora heard one she became more and more motivated to do something to hear it again.

True to her word, Maleficent taught Aurora the language of the Border Guards and many of the other languages that existed within the Moors. The Border Guards would talk at her whilst she listened intently; learning to distinguish between the rasping barks and sounds as Maleficent translated for her.

In the beginnings, they would then both walk a different walk to the Drachkarach stone, greeting the Fair Folk along the way to learn of the gossip. Aurora learned swiftly that quite a lot of the squabbles and problems were generational and would strike up again as soon as it re-occurred to the sprites in question to do so. Admonishments were dealt out, slightly more softly in Aurora's case and settlements negotiated.

"They are petty, at times, but no less important for that." Maleficent told her when they met at the Drachkarach stone a few weeks after the Border meeting. "Peace resides in the Moors because the small things are not treated as inconsequential."

Such walks gave her ample practice for her negotiation skills, although as Diaval pointed out, where Maleficent used calm and awe to solve problems, Aurora used charm and respect.

"I don't intend to." Aurora protested, not wishing Maleficent to think she was attempting to trick them. The Faerie just smiled at her.

"That they respect and love you is a good sign, dear heart."

Lunch would be partaken of at the Stone, usually consisting of delicacies that the Fair Folk would bring Aurora, and later Maleficent.

"They've stopped being quite so scared of you now." Diaval commented, alluding to the fact that a pollen faerie had just landed on Maleficent's hair and alas accidentally dumped a cup of nectar on her head. He'd joined them for lunch, a rarity these days as he mostly spent his time in his raven form, flying all over the Moors. The sprite wailed in remorse, rather than fear, but Maleficent merely plucked it off her horn where it was sobbing and blew on it gently, surrounding it with a golden glow to cheer it up. It became fascinated by the shifting patterns of magic and danced with the strands as they dissipated, unused. It flew off again and a water sprite came forward to comb Maleficent's hair clean and dry.

"It is well." She reclined and spread her wings out, a smile playing at her lips. Aurora watched the smile with a slight fascination, wondering what her Faerie was thinking. They bathed together most evenings and slept in each other's arms every night but Maleficent was still an enigma at times. Was she happy that her people were no longer scared of her or merely soothed by the water sprite's actions? It had been months and still questions would fill her head, although she had gotten better at not asking quite so many at a time. She sighed, flopping backwards into Maleficent's lap. She had done this so many times now that the action did not even cause the water sprite to startle and Aurora hummed in satisfaction as Maleficent stroked the young woman's hair absentmindedly.

Diaval smirked at the two of them but said nothing. *Well the human King will be disappointed for sure.* he thought to himself.

The afternoons were spent walking new ways each time, and Maleficent would tell Aurora bits of history of the Moors, Diaval gliding behind them if it took his fancy. The most painful stories were of the battles that had constantly been fought, each new King waging war on the Moors, never learning from the past and the losses the Moors suffered each time, including the deaths of Maleficent's own parents. The most beautiful stories were those of the beginnings of the Moors, the Fair Folk creating a world for themselves around the Portal to the other realms. Aurora was fascinated by the story of the Drachkarach stone and how it had been split down the middle by a bolt of magic during the ancient war with the Dragons.

One afternoon, Maleficent took her to see the Portal and she gazed into the depths of a pool, with water so clear she could see right down to the faint glimmer at the bottom that was the Portal. Maleficent kept a very tight hold on her from behind as she peered in. Humans could not pass through the Portal, without being a changeling or one of the Ravished. The Giant who guarded the pool stared at them suspiciously but Maleficent flared her wings and it settled down again. It was not bulky but well proportioned, terrifying in its height all the same until it started blowing bubbles to amuse them. Faeries popped out all around them, sprites and pixies of all different colours.

"That is how the Fair Folk are born, if they do not reproduce themselves. The Giant blows them into existence." Maleficent whispered to Aurora as she open-mouthed as streams of faeries flew past her in a rainbow haze. "The Giant is not a bad creature, but it guards the Portal diligently. You must never come here alone, do you hear? Not even to watch the faeries being born." Maleficent made her swear not to.

"Would it kill me?" Aurora asked timidly. Maleficent hesitated, not wishing to scare the young woman but in the end answered with the truth.

"No. But it would cast you down into the Portal and as a human you cannot pass through to the other realms."

"Can you?" Aurora clutched at Maleficent's arm as if she was about to fly off to them at that moment.

"Yes. But only after certain rites have been observed and passage obtained. The Fae do not welcome unexpected guests. Intruders are…dealt with."

"Killed?" Aurora asked matter-of-factly.

"Dealt with." Maleficent re-iterated. "Not all faeries are nice and there are…particularly unpleasant ones that have particularly unpleasant ways of not killing you. Immediately." Maleficent shuddered slightly and she pulled the young woman further into her arms protectively as they continued to watch the stream of faeries.

Aurora was happy most of the times she spent with her Faerie, her questions now rarely causing argument as they were mostly about what Maleficent was teaching her but she loved most the evenings when they would visit the Lady. She was a Guardian, not unlike the Giant but she stopped magic escaping from the Moors into the human world. Her resting place was in a cave near the centre of the Moors, where there was a small sort of rock pool into which she gazed. It was shallow, the rocky bottom easily visible. When the Lady offered Aurora a drink from it, she screwed up her entire face at the bitter salt taste but swallowed it anyway just to prove she would.

Maleficent laughed but admitted when Robin had taken her to see the Lady she had been fooled in the same way. The Lady laughed also and fashioned for Aurora a drinking cup that would refill with unsalted water whenever she would need it. Aurora found this gift excessively useful for her walking and the water was cool and delicious each and every time.

More weeks passed and Maleficent started leaving Aurora to spend the afternoons talking with other faeries after lunch at the Drachkarach stone. There were duties she had to deal with up in the mountains with the snow sprites who were unseasonably excited and Aurora would not last long up in the frosty air. Aurora mostly went to spend time with the Lady who would tell her all sorts of amusing stories of the Fair Folk, of trysts and seductions and Ravishings and certain changelings and how they had grown up.

"One child was Ravished by the Green Wind." The Lady told her with a certain amount of glee. "That caused no amount of upset in one Fairyland that did. And when you're one of the Ravished you must return there, once a year. That is the law. Of course, if you're a changeling, then you must stay there forever and never return home, unless you can find assistance."

"What am I then?" Aurora took great delight in these stories.

"Well, you're not a Ravished, not a child stolen away in order so they have to return. You're not a changeling; you were never switched for a Fae babe at birth. And yet…you have stayed. So I do not think you are even a Stumbler."

"Stumbler?"

"Aye, to be sure the only other way to get in is through stumbling into it."

"Maleficent took me to see the Portal." Aurora said uncertainly.

The Lady hesitated.

"That is the original. Fairylands are like the Moors, little pieces dotted all around the world, around the Portals. But the original…the Queen lives there with the King and it is not as kind or as beautiful as this place. Even the Dughviel do not go there."

"Is it so terrible?"

"It is where the Court resides." The Lady would say no more on the matter.

"So what am I then?" Aurora repeated her question.

"Hmm." The lady peered at her closely. "Not a Ravished for you do not leave. Not a Changeling for you can leave. Not a Stumbler for your time does not run out. I think you are a unique child, in all that have come to any Fairyland."

"Do you care for all the Fairylands?"

"Just the Moors, beloved one. Ah! Yes. That is what you are indeed. A Beloved. Very rare indeed. Even rarer that you were one of the Cursed." Aurora grinned to herself. She liked that almost as much as Maleficent calling her dear heart. "But I can sense the others who are like me. The other Ladies. We convene once a year, as well." The Lady steered the topic away, leaving such for Maleficent to handle.

The Lady would also take her into the depths of the Moors, showing her the darker creatures that lived there. Maleficent was not best pleased at this when Aurora told her when she returned to the Oak one evening.

"I suppose you must learn of all the creatures that are to be under your rule. And at least with the Lady you will be safe. Not even the Dughviel will attack the Lady." Maleficent mused.

"Why not? I mean do they attack you?" Aurora had not contemplated that there would be things that even Maleficent was afraid of.

"No. Not through fear, but because I rarely give them a cause to. But the Lady is the magic of the Moors. To attack her would be to attack their selves. Besides, she loves all creatures and they thank her for it." Maleficent smiled to herself as she subconsciously pulled Aurora deeper into her embrace at her last sentence.

"What does she do exactly?" Aurora was more than happy to snuggle.

"Beyond guarding the magic, she does not do much of anything; it is a task that requires concentration. She doesn't interfere with the running of the Moors. It is not her task and not of her interest. She prefers to observe through her scrying pool."

Aurora wondered whether there was anything that scared her Faerie. Maleficent seemed to be the most powerful being in the Moors, but also, bizarrely, the most human. She put it from her mind for the night and fell asleep to the sound of Maleficent's deep breathing. Her nightmares still occurred but Aurora knew now how to soothe the Faerie back into a peaceful sleep. She would stroke the Faerie's hair and kiss her forehead, whispering as she did "I am here. The one who returned your wings. I will look after you. I promise." and Maleficent would fall back into deep slumber, unaware of her Beastie's power.

Unbeknownst to Aurora, there were indeed far more powerful Faeries and magical beings that did not exactly scare Maleficent but certainly gave her pause. Maleficent was still quite a young Faerie, all in, for all her power. And when Maleficent came to fetch Aurora from the Lady one afternoon, the Lady requested her presence and she sent Aurora on home by herself in order to listen to the rumours from the Dughviel.

"Tell me. What do you know?" Maleficent turned from watching to Aurora walk out of sight.

"You would order the Lady?" The Lady said teasingly.

"The snow sprites will not tell me anything. It's as if they are delirious. But something is adding to their power. It is taking all of mine to stop them over-powering the Moors and bringing early winter.

"One has come through the Portal."

"Here?" Maleficent felt dread chill her more than the snow sprites did when she calmed them.

"Nay. In the cold lands to the East. She brings with her the winter and the Faerie lands there are not strong enough. She has taken them and seeks control of the human realm there."

"Has she managed to do so?"

"Not as yet. But the Lady of the Realm there is weakened beyond belief. I can no longer sense her, only the winter now. My pool froze over this morning when I attempted to scry her."

"Then the other Fairylands will know also?"

"Yes. But ye'll not find solutions there. Not all the Fairylands together are strong enough to stop that one when she's in the mood for mischief."

"What does she intend?"

"Similar to you, she seeks to curse the first born child of the king, to place one like herself upon the throne. She thinks the winter land the perfect place to rule the human world from. The fool king has already angered her. But there is no child. Yet. It will be conceived this winter."

"Then there is time. I must…"

"Ye must do nothing. The seasons turn and will turn to winter soon enough and that is her strength. Besides, you have the Moors to protect from such a winter and a Queen to crown. Do what you can to stop the snow sprites from succumbing. It is a powerful magic she is using against them. Journey there in the spring and catch her in the melt waters."

"And what should I do then, if not all the powers of Fairyland can stop her?" Maleficent asked.

"What you must." The Lady shrugged. "What you can."

Maleficent was silent for a moment. "You will tell Aurora nothing of this. She has enough to deal with. Tell her it is the snow sprites. That much she already knows. Tell her this happens on occasion and not to worry."

"She's stronger than you think." The Lady admonished.

"Let us hope that I am too." Maleficent shook her head and flew off after Aurora.

And so it was that Maleficent began to fly off after checking up on the healing of the Borderlands, leaving Aurora to walk to the Drachkarach stone by herself and have lunch with Diaval. Aurora merely thought it was Maleficent giving her more autonomy in the leading up to her coronation and thusly dealt with the Fair Folk and the few altercations that came up with human children sniffing around the border. One was almost stolen to become one of the Ravished but Maleficent showed up before the contract could be finished and the child was returned to the human world. The whistle hung around Aurora's neck unused.

Robin began to join her and Diaval, she suspected at first at Maleficent's request. She asked him where Maleficent was but he gave her the same reply, up in the mountains dealing with the snow sprites so she sighed and accepted it as truth.

Diaval began to fly off also but his was a more romantic leaning as he had found a mate and was courting.

Aurora still saw Maleficent every night, when she would return rime-covered and cold to sleep with Aurora in the Oak. And Maleficent never missed the once a week meeting when the envoy from Phillip would appear at the Borders to update them on the well-doing of the Human Kingdom. And once a month they both flew to the castle to meet with the Council and Phillip and Aurora settled for being happy with the times they got to spend together, although she wished Maleficent would confide in her exactly what the problem was.

She asked the Lady once out of curiosity.

"I would not fret until she starts to." The Lady smiled awkwardly. "Your Faerie is a strong one. Have faith in her."

The meetings at the castle were always slightly tense affairs. Phillip had been true to his plan and retired the old Council members to positions in close cities, where he could keep an eye on them but where they could cause as little trouble as possible. There were bumps in that road but he had dealt with them as best he could. The castle was now bare of all iron but it was still a hated place for Maleficent to go. Hearts could not heal as well as the earth at the Borderlands and she kept close to Aurora at all times, disregarding whatever the new Council would feel. She no longer felt bound to keep her distance. Aurora's choice had been made and she had chosen the Moors. And Maleficent with them in the bargain it seemed.

Nearly half a year had passed before Phillip drew Maleficent to the side at one of these meetings and questioned her on when she planned the Coronation to be. The Faerie was slightly affronted.

"I do not mean to pry or hurry but…" he ran a hand through his thick hair. "It will be easier to convince the court that the Moors will not renounce the peace. At the moment they fear you not keeping to what you said. They think you still hold the crown. It doesn't help that there are rumours of the Eastern kingdoms facing a faerie threat."

Maleficent softened slightly. "It is tough for you, no? Being King?"

"The Kingdom is recovering well but is indeed still recovering. There is prosperity coming but nervousness also. It is nigh on harvest time and whether it is good or bad…" he trailed off with the uncertainty that harvest could bring.

Maleficent considered him. "I could help you there, if indeed the harvest is such a deciding factor."

He stared at her curiously. "If you can do anything to ensure a successful first harvest I would be most grateful. It is not the tipping point between peace and revolution, but it would calm the people especially. Reassure them the land is not cursed."

She laughed. "We are the Fair Folk. We do have some power over such things, if we wish it. Have you never heard of the blessings?"

"No. Ulstead does not border on any Fae land that I know of." He shrugged.

"Well, in return for gifts, properly presented of course, faeries can bless crops and animals to be plentiful."

"Gifts?" Phillip raised an eyebrow.

"Usually food. The Fair Folk do not go in much for cooking but the cakes you humans can make…" Maleficent trailed off, wistfully.

Phillip laughed. "Is there anything I need do to bring this about?"

"No. The farms at the borderlands have more than enough understanding of how the system works. I will…walk among the farms to remind them."

And so she did. Once a week, after the meeting with the envoy, she would walk the human lands near the border. With Aurora by her side, the farmers were slightly less terrified to see the Faerie and it was not long before small sprites were dancing with joy to see offerings and in return passing blessings.

The first harvest was a success and Aurora and Maleficent watched the celebrations from the top of a tree at the Border, sharing nectar and sweet cakes that Robin had brought them. Aurora laughed at such revelry and it brought to Maleficent's mind again the Coronation. The time was fast approaching and she wanted it done before winter. For as winter approached, so too did the threat from the East.

An: Y'all ever read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making, that's where the Ravished, The Stumbled come from. September is the girl the Lady talks about. Changelings are as old as fairytales I think. Anyway, it's a glorious book, totally recommend reading it. Catherynne M Valente also writes adult stuff, Palimpsest is an acid trip of a book and worth it also.

Also, also can anyone guess which crossover is gonna come a-storming like the titanic into this fic in chapters to come? *distant laughter*


	11. The Thorn in the Sweetcake

An: *angst incoming* I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. *not sorry*Also I made a mistake. In the last chapter, the child is meant to be conceived in the coming winter not born. Hopefully that has now been fixed…

Disclaimer: The day may come when I get the copyright off of Disney! But it is not this day!

Chapter Eleven: The Thorn in the Sweetcake (Coronations, Carnations and Carnivals)

They were walking the lands at the border one morning in the late autumn, the Moors no less in splendour than they had become through the summer. Maleficent stooped at the usual spot, the very place where she had brought forth the wall of thorns and passed a golden glow over the Earth there. Aurora left her to the magic and went to talk to Grutavan, the self-same border guard who had led her through the Marshes. She had since learned that her grunt had been of approval and that passage through the Marshes was dangerous without a Border Guard's permission. They had spells set up to keep their resting place safe. Grutavan had developed a soft spot for the young woman and would meet with her every day whilst Maleficent used her healing magic.

Maleficent dug her hand into the soil and let a handful run through her fingers to confirm what her senses were telling her. The Earth hummed with completeness.

"So…" she breathed, standing upright. "It is done."

"What is done?" Aurora asked, approaching her Faerie. Usually the healing took longer.

In reply, Maleficent bent down to retrieve a handful of earth and, standing, poured it into Aurora's hands. "The Earth is healed. It is time." Maleficent stared meaningfully at Aurora.

Her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Time for what?"

"Your coronation." Maleficent stated simply.

Aurora's jaw dropped. "What?"

"The Earth here has healed, you have spent long months learning all you can about the Moors, its history, its present; the rest you will only gain through ruling. I can teach you no more, only experience can." Maleficent turned to head into the forest. "Come, we must make the final preparations."

"Final?" Aurora caught her arm, still struggling to process the abruptness of the revelation.

"Yes, Beastie. I have been planning this for some time, you know." The Faerie smiled.

"How long?" the young woman frowned.

"Since you agreed to be crowned Queen?" Maleficent raised an eyebrow. "It was necessary."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" Aurora was outraged.

Maleficent sighed, puzzled slightly by her reaction. "I suppose a coronation is not exactly a good surprise?"

"Not one of your best." Aurora was slightly mollified by the roundabout apology. "Well, will you tell me what you have planned? Do I have a say in anything?"

"You can abdicate." Maleficent shrugged. "The plan is to have the ceremony at the Drachkarach stone, with as many Fae kind in attendance as possible. I will crown you…"

"What will the crown be like?" curiosity overtook Aurora's anger.

"Gold."

"Faerie gold?" Aurora had learned of the glamours the Fae kind could cast.

"Magic gold, but not an illusion, no." Maleficent shook her head.

"Will Phillip be there? He asked to be." Aurora inclined her head.

"Once the ceremony is completed, yes he can approach to pay respects."

"And my aunties? The pixies."

"Those traitors?" Maleficent snorted derisively.

"Because they chose the human realm?"

"And consorted with Stephen." The Faerie reminded her.

"Then it will be a further gesture of reconciliation." Aurora argued. "To show forgiveness. Besides, they did raise me. Even if not very well. I would like for them to be there on such an occasion."

Maleficent huffed but wisdom was in Aurora's words and she acceded. Phillip and the pixies would be allowed to witness it. "I'll even let them bring the crown to me." Maleficent stuck her chin in the air as if to express her generosity and magnanimousness.

Aurora laughed and took hold of Maleficent's arm, leaning into her shoulder. "That would be a beautiful gesture on your behalf. Thank you."

"And then of course we shall have revelries. The Fair Folk are renowned for their revelries. But they shall be on human ground, near the Borderlands, to make it clear that this is an occasion for both kingdoms."

"Plus if humans want to come they can but without messing up your Moors?" Aurora grinned.

"Your Moors, dear heart. Your Moors." Maleficent put fingers to her lips and whistled for Diaval. They had agreed that he would answer such a summons but no other.

"What's the emergency?" he asked after Maleficent transformed him mid-swoop, earning herself an elbow in the side from Aurora.

"I have a favour to ask. Will you fly to the castle with a message for Phillip? The time has come at last and the coronation is to be tomorrow."

"Aye, alright." Diaval acquiesced and she gave him a sealed scroll from her pouch, transforming him back to a Raven with a flick of her wrist.

"You really have been planning this for some time." Aurora stared after the Raven. "You had a scroll prepared and everything. Does even Phillip know about these plans?"

"Of course." Maleficent nodded. "We spoke on occasion after the monthly meetings."

"Did everyone know about my coronation except me?" Aurora scowled at her Faerie.

"Phillip was required to know." Maleficent shrugged but saw how put out Aurora was and sighed. "I apologise, I thought it would be better as a surprise and that the plans would only distract you from your work. I should never have underestimated you Beastie and I'm sorry for it." She kissed Aurora's Kiss. Aurora snorted but curled her arms around Maleficent all the same.

"Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green, when you are King dilly dilly I shall be Queen." She hummed to herself. Maleficent smiled as she recognised the rhyme.

"Who told you so, dilly dilly, who told you so?" she sang back softly.

"Twas my own heart, Mally Mally that told me so." Aurora sang meaningfully, brushing her lips against Maleficent's chest at the word heart. She leaned back to look Maleficent in the eyes, realising as she watched a golden gleam infuse the Faerie's eyes and blush start across her cheeks that she did not have to lean so far. She'd grown taller in the summer.

"I thought we agreed that you would never call me that again." Maleficent exhaled, averting her eyes.

"I don't recall any such agreement being made." Aurora smiled, kissing her Faerie on the cheek before taking her hand and walking back with her to the Drachkarach stone, the Fair Folk flitting about them excitedly as Maleficent gave them tasks to do, as the word spread through the Moors.

They spent the rest of the day overseeing preparations, Maleficent forgoing her journey to the mountains for once. Aurora did not leave her side once, apart from to stay outside whilst Maleficent talked to the Lady about the Crown. The circle was set, the food and nectar prepared and everything now lay waiting for tomorrow.

They had finally returned to the Great Oak and after finishing dinner had curled up in the hammock, which now sported a roof to keep out the autumn rains. Aurora was unable to find peace in sleep and twitched constantly. There were too many questions in her head and a sudden feeling of fear, although not exactly about the coronation.

"Nervous Beastie?" Maleficent stroked her hair, unable to sleep herself due to the wriggling human within her arms.

"Yes." Aurora whispered back.

"You are ready."

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?" Maleficent rose onto her elbow.

"Oh! I don't know." Aurora burrowed into Maleficent's body. She could not speak her fears. It was not the responsibility; she'd been practically acting Monarch for months now. It was the creeping fear that came with Maleficent's prolonged absences and the lack of explanation still apart from snow sprites. She hadn't even told her about the Coronation. They were close, so close in all their platonic and more closeness and yet Maleficent had never felt further away. She knew that if she questioned the Faerie she would not get the answer she desired, for Maleficent did not lie and yet she would not always tell the truth either. Neither Diaval, nor Robin, nor the Lady nor anyone would tell her either.

It was the fear that Maleficent would leave. It was the knowledge that Maleficent would leave. That her coronation marked the end of this…whatever this was. That Maleficent would not be the King to her Queen and she struggled to hold back tears because of it. Maleficent enveloped her with arms and wings, stroking and soothing the young woman as much as she could, her fingers glowing golden with unused magic. She remembered the song Robin used to sing to her as a babe, when she woke from dreams of her parents and cried.

"Hush, hush…time tae be sleepin'. Hush, hush. Dreams come a-creepin', dreams of peace and of freedom, so smile in your sleep bonny beastie." she sang.

Aurora eventually passed out through restless exhaustion as Maleficent repeated the lullaby but the Faerie herself did not sleep that night, caught up in the knowledge that tomorrow would be both a beginning and an end. And that much as she had tried to keep that from her Beastie, the young woman knew in some small way.

A Queen was to be crowned and the Moors were alive and noisy in their joy and woke Aurora early. She turned to the Faerie who was still holding her. Maleficent nodded.

"It is time, dear heart."

They bathed together in silence without their usual playfulness. Instead of her usual robes, the Lady had fashioned for Aurora a most beautiful gold gown and helped her into it herself at the pool's edge. Maleficent remained bathing in the centre, claiming she needed extra time to bathe her wings. Aurora sensed that Maleficent was withdrawing already and hated it. Was all their closeness up until now, all of yesterday merely a way to make amends in advance for the coming days?

When Maleficent joined them at last, the Lady wound gold around her horns and wing tips so she would match Aurora. The young woman did not miss the glance between the Lady and Maleficent, the tilt of the chin that followed. An arrangement had happened wordlessly, a decision made long ago and confirmed again. She pushed the sadness deep inside her. In all her years, still it was only Maleficent who could cause her sorrow. But today was a joyous day for all and when they turned to her she smiled a true smile.

"May flowers bloom at your feet this day." Maleficent blessed her as a coronation gift before flying off to be at the throne ready, and indeed Aurora had become so linked with the Moors that when she walked towards the Drachkarach stone carnations the colour of her hair grew around her.

The Coronation went without a hitch although the crowds exhausted Maleficent slightly and she and Diaval withdrew to a nearby cliff so the Moors and Phillip could greet their Queen.

The after party at the Borderlands was pure revelry. Aurora made her own way through the Moors, to greet the Fair Folk that had not managed to make it and call upon the Border Guards, who affirmed with a roar that she was indeed their Queen as Balthazar re-joined them. Phillip stayed close to her, nervous at the sight of all of them together. As they reached the Border, Maleficent and Diaval appeared, swooping downwards into the middle of a vast field set for celebration. A cheer went up from the assembled humans as they landed and Maleficent bowed to the farmers whose lands had been blessed. All manner of Fair Folk emerged from the Border, shaking off their shyness, as Aurora and Phillip went arm in arm towards Maleficent.

The Faerie bowed before the Queen and the King. "Your Majesties, this party is proof of the peace that is between our two kingdoms. Will you start it?"

"Gladly." Phillip smiled, gesturing for the music to begin as he crossed towards the humans.

Aurora attached herself to Maleficent's arm as people started dancing or drinking or both.

"Will you dance with me?" she asked.

Maleficent shook her head. "Later, perhaps. If I drink enough nectar." She grinned, flashing her fangs and moved to join the Fair Folk where they were busy flitting around, pouring small drops of the intoxicating Faerie liquid into cups and eyes and onto the sweet cakes and food the farmers had brought. Aurora pursed her lips at the antics but did not have the heart to tell them off. *There are going to be a lot of Fae-struck people wandering about tomorrow.* she rolled her eyes and then noticed that Phillip was talking to a Wallerbog. She opened her mouth to cry out a warning but alas too late a large glob of mud hit the back of his trousers.

"Really!" she cried out, seeing Maleficent grinning from her seat on a table and Diaval on the floor laughing. It brought home to Aurora that her Faerie was just that, a tricksy member of the Fair Folk. She smiled; she had never seen Maleficent in such a natural state. Her eyes gleamed golden-green like tarnished bronze and she lounged with her legs crossed, watching as her kind wrought havoc on the human guests. Perhaps Maleficent had already imbibed too much nectar for she was far too relaxed. *Like a warrior drinking the night before they go to war.* Aurora thought and it chilled her. The thing that was hidden from her. Was it a war? A magical war? One that only Maleficent could fight, whilst she, now Queen officially, looked after the Moors.

She became distracted by more mud being thrown and as always seemed to happen around the Wallerbogs, a mud fight ensued. Aurora for once did not get involved and was merely content to watch from a distance. She mused upon that. Once she would not have hesitated. Is this what being Queen meant? Being apart?

Maleficent gestured to some water sprites to help clean Phillip and everyone up but they merely proceeded to drench everyone. Phillip shook his head to clear his eyes of hair and water.

"Merry pranks!" He cried aloud and Aurora sensed that his drink had been "enhanced" with nectar also.

She resigned herself to chaos and bit into a sweet cake, watching as Diaval attempted to fly in human form and ended up on the floor again, a wry grin playing around her mouth.

"Good revelry, no?" Robin crept to her side, holding two cups of nectar. He offered one to her and she sipped it graciously as she sat down at the base of a tree.

"Everyone certainly seems to be enjoying themselves." Aurora agreed.

"Except you?" Robin asked pointedly.

Aurora breathed in deeply and downed the rest of her drink to avoid answering. "I'm off to dance! Save me some sweet cake." She strode up to Maleficent, the nectar already working upon her.

"Have you had enough nectar now Protector?" she grabbed Maleficent's hand and dragged her off the table and into the middle of a dancing ring of people. The world felt golden and swirly in the light of the fire torches lit, but it was warm and was not at all like the spinning sensation caused by iron and dragon fire. Maleficent joined in with the swirling as Aurora twirled her round and the rest of the dance was lost in a golden haze. They stumbled to the side as the music changed to a slower tempo and Maleficent bent to steal Aurora's Kiss, the Queen tilting her head to capture Maleficent's lips instead. The world was brought crashing back into focus for the Faerie and she stepped backwards. Aurora froze as Maleficent retreated. Words would not come as wings were spread and took her far into the night sky.

"Diaval!" the Queen cried, turning to find the changeling Raven, who merely flapped his arms in a mimicry of flying to indicate he was in human form still and could do nothing. She made to go after the Faerie but Diaval laid an arm on hers.

"Sure and twould not look good for the Queen to leave her own coronation party." He tried to argue but she shrugged him off, walking in amongst the trees at the border as she realised she could not pursue the Faerie.

All her foreboding about Maleficent leaving came flooding back and her gait became slow as the glow from the nectar left her.

"Ye remind me of her right now so you do." Robin fluttered to her side. "This is what she used to do when that boy didnae come back." He shook his head.

"You mean my father?" Aurora asked, not caring any more.

"Aye, him."

"I think I am more like him."

Robin raised an incredulous eyebrow. "And what in seven stars makes you say that?"

"I kissed her."

"Aye. I saw. Not a good thing, that. She may steal your Kiss but that is a precious thing and the Fair Folk are renowned for being able to do that. A kiss on the other hand, well that has a history for her…" he trailed off.

"I just wanted to kiss her before she left." Aurora fought back tears. "I know she's leaving. I know you've been keeping something from me. Something big. She comes back covered in ice every night and she says it's just frost sprites but…" she took a deep gulping breath. "I'm not stupid. I thought maybe at first she was just letting me handle things but there's something else isn't there. Something I can't handle. That's why she won't tell me."

Robin shuffled uncomfortably. Maleficent had not strictly told him when he should tell Aurora and now seemed as good as any. "There…there is talk of a power. A snow power. To the East. Ye ken the Lady? Her pool froze clean over. There's trouble in a Fairyland and if there's trouble in one, it spreads. The snow sprites are just the beginning."

"The beginning of what?"

"An invasion." Robin whispered, as if afraid to say it aloud. "The Lady told that one came through the Portal."

Dread sobered Aurora more quickly even than grief. "The portal…here?!" she remembered well Maleficent's words. *"Not all faeries are nice and there are particularly unpleasant ones that have particularly unpleasant ways of not killing you. Immediately."*

"Nay, some Fairyland to the East. I overheard her telling Maleficent." Robin coughed. "None of the other Fair Folk know."

"What will happen?"

"Can't say." Robin shrugged. "Neither can Maleficent. But she knows she must fight whatever came through at some point. She's the Protector. It is her duty."

"And she must leave." Aurora swallowed.

"Aye. The Moors have their Queen, the land is healed and peace reigns between the kingdoms. There are other duties now which she must attend to."

Aurora went calm. The calmness the other side of grief and fear where the world seemed to slow. "Yes." She said simply before rising and returning to the party. She too had other duties that she must attend to.

It was nigh on dawn and most of the humans were collapsed around the circle of torches. She found Phillip and gave him water from her cup to revive him.

"You must return to the castle now." She helped him on top of a horse and sent him on his way, covered in mud and strange markings and still completely Fae-struck.

The Fair Folk had since left as dawn approached and Aurora headed back into the Moors herself after dousing the torches, climbing a tree at the border to watch the dawn in its cool pastel colours and the humans waken, yawning and bleary, and stumble back to their farms. Children, who had not been allowed at the revelry, snuck to the circle and left sweet cake in the traditional manner and after they had gone, Aurora retrieved it and set off back to the Great Oak with it as a peace offering. Maleficent was not there when she first arrived so she left it in the hammock and went to bathe the residues of the night from her, feeling a slight headache come on that she suspected was from the nectar.

She saw Maleficent standing on the cliff edge, watching her as she ascended to the top once more. The Faerie seemed distant and aloof but Aurora had not yet lost the strange sense of calm that had come over her upon hearing Robin talk of invasion.

"I have a gift for you. For the new Queen." Maleficent said steadily, no hint of emotion in her voice.

Aurora nodded, returning the cool gaze with one of her own. "I will gladly accept it." She said regally.

"Come with me." Maleficent turned and Aurora followed, feeling for a moment the ghost of a hand in hers and missing it as she stared at the winged back in front of her. She locked her jaw to keep herself from crying. They walked in silence until they came to a small clearing nearing the Drachkarach stone. A shieling had been constructed from what looked like branches, moss and stone. A Faerie dwelling for certain.

Aurora looked questioningly at Maleficent.

"It is for you to live in, now you are crowned."

"So I am no longer welcome at the Oak?" it felt like acid was burning down Aurora's throat at the words.

"A Queen must have her own residence." The Faerie replied simply. "The Fair Folk built it for you."

Aurora's face crumpled and the calmness fell away.

"You're leaving aren't you?" she was disappointed that her voice broke. "Where are you going?"

"You'll do fine Beastie. You have done for several months now, without my help." The Faerie said evasively.

"You're meant to stay here! We're both meant to be here! To look after each other and…"

"Aurora." Maleficent cut in. "There are things I must do up in the mountains, for the protection of the Moors. You must stay here and rule as Queen. That is all there is to it." Her own voice was not exactly holding steady.

"At least tell me what is going on!" Aurora reached half-heartedly for the Faerie but knew she would never reach her, not now. Wings were spread. "That's it? That's it? You're just going to go like that without even…" Aurora was stunned at Maleficent's suddenness, although in retrospect thought, she should not have been. Things had a tendency sometimes to be sudden and with little explanation around Maleficent. She was a Faerie after all; in part it was in their nature.

"I will return. You have my promise." Maleficent went to steal Aurora's Kiss but the Queen shied away.

"Don't." she said softly, turning her eyes to the ground.

Maleficent gazed at her sadly. "Then goodbye, Beastie." There was a dull thud of displaced air and Aurora looked up again.

She stared at the spot where the Faerie had stood long after her wings had taken her into the sky. 

An: *sings I am such a grawlix I am such a grawlix lally lally laaaaa* Ahem. The song Maleficent sings is an actual song. In the book they're in the Scottish Highlands so I trawled my music box for lullaby type Celtic songs and this was one of them. It is called Hush Hush. The 'beastie' is Maleficent's adaptation tho. Is there anyone who doesn't know Lavender's blue? Well in Britain at any rate. Acutally probably quite a lot of people don't know it. Anyways it's like a nursery song thing.


	12. Beauty, Power and Snow Grow

An: Diaval and Maleficent friendship times ftw. Aurora and Phillip friendship times ftw. Friendship abounds. Angst abounds.

Disney still owns all.

Chapter Twelve: Beauty, Power and Snow Grow

Aurora crept through the door of the shieling as the evening light faded from the Moors. She had no desire to return to the Oak and the Fair Folk had built it for her. It felt large and airy and bare; a single room with a made up bed in it and small hooks hanging from the ceiling near the walls for clothes and a small trunk.

So she was Queen now and this was her abode. She opened the small trunk, in small hope that Maleficent might have left some parting gift, something more than just a goodbye. There were several gowns there but she knew those to be from the Lady and she slammed it shut again. Her coronation dress was beginning to itch at her and she pulled it off and shoved it under the bed, never wanting to wear it again, kicking the golden slippers that pinched her toes after it. In her trous and support she led down on the bed that did not feel right. It was a Fair Folk made bed, no heavy human linens but it was not a hammock that would swing slightly in high winds that never seemed to be able to penetrate it. It would never feel right because there were no rustling wings or warm arms and light breathing, not even the thrashings of a nightmare. It was cold and lonely. But she knew what she had to do, as she lay staring fiercely at the opposite wall.

And thusly she did it. Every day, she did her duty as Queen even though her heart felt as if it walked with her feet and was jerked at every footstep. She kept peace with the humans, she dealt with infractions and solved the squabbles that she could and eased the problems that she couldn't. She walked different routes around the Moors every day, even defying Maleficent and daring to visit the Giant at their pool where they bowed to her and she nodded back and continued walking. She visited the Dughviel and rode on the backs of the winged beasts and behind the Border Guards on their Boars when she needed to get somewhere quickly.

Her robes she wore over rough trousers bartered from a farmer and Robin made her soft boots, light enough to run in but heavy enough to withstand the travelling. In fact, Robin became her aid and advisor and became highly valuable to her, although he would have consternations about her insisting on dealing with even the Dark creatures and they came to love her almost as much as they loved the Lady.

But not all the sprites and faeries together with their tricks and jokes could cheer her beyond a brief smile. Wallerbogs let mud slide, thistle faeries no longer playfully pricked at her legs as she walked by. She was a gracious Queen, full of quiet strength and reserve but the Fair Folk who had played with her a year ago barely recognised her. Still, she became respected and trusted. News of Maleficent's flight was all over the Moors and there was much speculation as to why. Whispers came from the dark places, a power was at work and Maleficent had gone to fight it, leaving Aurora to rule the Moors. The Fair Folk bowed their heads sadly for they loved their Queen and no longer feared their Protector and the happiness the two had had together and brought to the Moors was lost now in their separation.

It was a rare day when Aurora felt drained of all strength and could not summon the will to get out of bed. Robin had come to her door to enquire why she wasn't there at their meeting place, although the day was not exactly filled with urgency. As the old faerie came round the door he was greeted with

"She didn't tell me Robin. All those months and all that closeness and she didn't tell me. Did she think I wasn't capable? Of course she's right. There's nothing I can do against some snow faerie anyways. I can't even heal the trees that get damaged in the wind."

"Well, ye was busy with the Queening. Mayhap she didn't want you worryin' about something ye couldn't do anything about." Robin closed the door behind him and looked at the lump that presumably was the Queen.

"So why not tell me after the coronation? Why not tell me before she left?" Aurora emerged from beneath the covers to look at him.

"Things were worsenin'. She needed to leave quick sharp aye?"

"Except she didn't. She didn't just leave, she brought me here."

"Final step to make ye Queen? Look ye Majesty, Maleficent is as like to me as my own kin but if'n you be asking me to interpret her actions or why she does something, I'm afraid I can't tell ye. Her reasons have always been her own. Now stop feeling sorry for yerself. She left you in charge of her Moors and she gave you promise she'd return to 'em. Why not trust her to know her own business?"

"She's still in the Moors. I can feel her you know. I'm not sure I ever told her that. But I can sense her presence. I've been able to since before I can remember. So I know she's there. Up in the mountains. It's very cold there. And I see Diaval every day flying overhead, probably checking up on me."

"Well then." Robin shrugged.

Aurora simply shook her head. "It's nothing to do with that. It's not even the fact she's left. And will leave even the Moors in the future. If one Fairyland's in trouble, they all are right? And as she's bragged in the past, she's the strongest of the Fair Folk here. But it's not that. It's the fact she didn't tell me."

Robin narrowed his eyes. "What would ye have done if she had told ye? Cajoled her not to leave? And succeeded most likely." Aurora was silent. "Can ye say ye'd not have done exactly that?"

"No. I even did exactly that." she breathed out in pained realisation. "And if she'd told me before I would've had time to convince her."

"Exactly. Not telling ye saved her and you both the pain of that. A lesser pain it was for her to leave in a moment after months of closeness, then to leave after months of bitter struggle."

"But I also would've had time to say goodbye, to come to terms with…everything. Not just have a 'You'll do fine Beastie, goodbye now'. I had to learn from you what was even going on."

Robin looked at his feet in return realisation. "Well possibly that wasn't the best way either, no." he admitted, scratching his nose and sniffing. "She's not always good with the explanations."

"They're not her greatest ability, no." Aurora snorted, thinking back to the revelation that she had been cursed and Maleficent's planning her coronation and the way the Faerie had dealt with making Aurora queen in the first place.

Robin raised an eyebrow at the cynical snort. "Lookee, do you not think maybe she is in pain too? She…" he hesitated. Aurora deserved to hear that from Maleficent herself. He changed tack. "She's a strong Beastie. She can fight aye, if you're worried that that was the entire goodbye you'll e'er get." Aurora turned to him angrily, tears welling up in her eyes. He scoffed. "Oh will you have some faith, child? You complain she does nae trust you and yet you will not believe in her either."

Aurora's temper snapped and she leapt out of bed howling at him. "YOU DIDN'T SEE HER! YOU DIDN'T SEE HER SURROUNDED BY IRON! UNDER A NET! THEY BEAT HER, ROBIN! THEY WHIPPED HER AND BEAT HER AND SHE NEARLY DIED!" Aurora flew at the old faerie, casting bedding left right and centre. "DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW! DON'T THINK I HAVE NOT SEEN! I SOOTHED HER NIGHTMARES! I KNOW HOW WEAK SHE IS! I HAVE SEEN HER WHEN SHE CANNOT FIGHT AND YOU THINK I WILL BE COMFORTED LIKE A…LIKE A CHILD?!" She stalked across the floor and kicked at the door frame in disgust, grimacing as kicking a door frame barefooted hurt.

Robin quailed under the Queen's fury. "I…" he swallowed. "I'm sorry, ye majesty. I forgot you have had…but listen I knew her as a child and ye think I'm not worried either? What I've been through these past years?"

"Were you trying to comfort me or yourself then?" Aurora sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes.

"…both." Robin confessed, fiddling with his floppy ears.

Aurora sighed. "She'd better keep her promise. Otherwise I'm going after her, sending this…this…

"Snow Queen." Robin supplied helpfully.

"Snow Queen back to whatever pit she crawled out of and bringing Maleficent home." She stalked out the door, slamming it behind her.

Robin stared after her for a while. "Aye and I believe you." Despite his self, he was a little impressed at the determination and resilience Aurora was showing. "Only sixteen and already a fair Queen." He grinned, proud despite himself, of both Aurora and Maleficent. He gathered himself, huffed worriedly and went after the young Queen, realising she'd left into the cold in only her undergarments and barefooted to boot. "Aye and you'd think I'd be tiring of running around after ill-tempered youths at my time o' life." He muttered as he closed the door behind him.

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In a tiny, rude shieling in the lee of a mountain outcrop, a man with more than hint of Raven around the nose shivered alongside a human sized winged Faerie, curled into her wings. They had been fighting the snow sprites day in, day out for over a month now but the sprites had thought up new tricks. Else it was the one who had riled them into a fury had made them bind together into a massive whirling ball of turning snow. Maleficent had had to use all her cunning to undo the magic and they'd been half frozen whilst she did so.

"Remind me exactly why I'm here." Diaval clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering as he flexed his newly healed fingers. Maleficent had done some kind of magic and the snow kept the wind out but the temperature was still too low for comfort.

"Because I need you to be my wings. I said and I repeat 'I need you Diaval. I can't do this without you Diaval.' And you agreed. And here you are." Maleficent was attempting to get some sleep in between the seemingly never ending battle with the snow sprites. They had not yet attacked at night for some reason but she knew if today's fight was anything to go by that it was only a matter of time before the attacks intensified.

"You mean you need me to keep yourself from getting killed on your lonesome and go check up on Aurora for you. Some things never change." Diaval muttered as he curled into a corner in an attempt to keep warm.

"What?" Maleficent snapped.

"Nothing! Nothing." He looked over at the Faerie. "D'you think I would be warmer as a bird?" he hinted.

"I don't know." Maleficent muttered. "You might be quieter as a bird at least."

"Could you not change me so I could find out?"

"I could make it permanent, you know." She raised her horned head above the line of her wings.

"WHAT?!" Diaval scrambled up. "Look I didn't mean it that way." He held out his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Make me human permanently and I'll…"

"I meant I could turn you into a changeling permanently." Maleficent interrupted. "You could change shape without needing my power to do it. Or I could leave you a Raven for the rest of your days but I have a feeling you'd miss being able to talk." She finished snidely.

"Oh haha. Very funny. Yes, actually. I would miss being able to talk. The occasions are rare when it happens but I do sometimes enjoy talking with you. And I always like talking to…" Diaval hesitated as he saw Maleficent's wings tense around her. "…the um…other faeries."

"You can say her name you know." He was impressed. Barely a tremor. It'd only take a month and a half. When he'd first said her name in passing, she'd thrown him out the shieling. Well, he might have run out in terror at the look in her eyes, but it was the same thing!

"Well…it would be nice to be a Changeling. It's a big decision, I mean but…I think it's probably the only way I'm going to be truly happy." He gabbled slightly. "How would you do it? Would the Lady help? Is there a ritual?"

"There is a ritual." Maleficent sat up straight, yawning wide enough to show the Raven all her fangs, resigning herself to no sleep that night.

"Would you…"

"Be willing and able to perform it on your mate also? Yes. I'm amazed she hasn't complained with you being out here all winter."

"Brynna? I fly back and visit her when I see…um the others." She might've given permission but that didn't mean Diaval was going to risk mentioning that name again, not with the snow sprites banding together to make giant concentrated snow storms. "It's not like we have a chick yet. Although I'm hoping maybe in spring...I mean d'you think this will be done by then?"

Maleficent considered him. "Whether it is or not, I shall send you back down the mountain. Where I am going in spring, you cannot follow."

"Why not?"

Maleficent's shoulders slumped at his words. "Your bravery commends you but this is no castle of iron. This is a fortress of winter. You would die Diaval. Changeling or no, the magic, if not the cold, would end you. I would not be able to shield you from it."

"Oh and I suppose you're immune to it then are you?" he tilted his head to one side and Maleficent half expected him to hop as he would hop on a branch.

"I can fight back." She retreated back inside her wings and Diaval knew that conversation had been terminated.

They had been up in the mountains a month and a half, fighting the snow sprites at every turn, Maleficent guarding the barriers she'd put in place to stop them spilling down into the Moors. She attempted to soothe them, heal the mess their rampages caused and save whomsoever they could that they found beneath the snow. He sometimes wondered who would save them, but Maleficent used magic to protect them in the shieling. She claimed it was easier to interweave a protection spell into a solid unmoving object than a flighty little hopping Raven. And it probably was, he conceded. Whenever he complained of getting too cold which was at least once a day, she sent him to fly over the Moors or to the castle and return with food and reports as to the goings on.

Sometimes the battles were intense. There had been many injuries to both of them, some that only the best of Maleficent's healing magic could make right. Frost bite was the worst. The worst battle came in the New Year, the storms gathering about the mountain, angry that the two figures still living there had managed to keep them back for so long from tearing down into the Moors. The power that was manipulating them squashed the snow sprites together to make a towering figure of hard snow and sharp ice. Maleficent was the one who had felt the burst of magic as she slept and had woken Diaval and together they faced the new threat in the dark.

"Don't harm them!" Maleficent shouted over the gale as she sought to undo the magic binding the figure together, the glow from her magic lighting the entire plateau.

"Couldn't if I wanted to!" Diaval answered back as he danced around, attempting to distract it whilst she worked. The huge snow monster loomed towards him and he stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the edge of the cliff.

"DIAVAL!" Maleficent flew at the snow monster, barrelling through it to physically disperse the snow sprites back to their separate forms. She cried out as ice splinters ripped into her wings and she collapsed out of the air next to Diaval.

"Maleficent!" he scrambled to her over the snow.

"It's okay." She ground out as the snow flurried around them fiercely.

"Come on! Let's get you back to the shieling." He tried to haul her upright but she was a dead weight. "Maleficent!"

Blood was staining the snow and a shadow fell over them as the snow sprites reformed. Diaval was brave, throwing himself over Maleficent and rolling them both to the side as a fist as hard as ice came crashing down. He cried out as he felt his leg break.

"Maleficent! You have to get up!" he shook her desperately by the shoulder. She surged up right, throwing him backward off her wings and for the first time cast an attack spell and the snow sprites dissolved into slush. She stood horrified for a minute before Diaval grabbed at her hand and she hauled him upright. Supporting each other, they limped back to the warmth of the shieling.

"Here." Maleficent whispered once they were safe inside, healing his leg with a wave before falling to the floor.

"Maleficent?" he crouched beside her, his leg still tingling from the healing.

"I…I killed them Diaval. They were Fair Folk under my protection and I killed them." Her voice trembled with rage and grief.

"Well, they were doing a fine job of almost killing us both so I'll take my life and be grateful, all the same." He answered pragmatically. "How are ye wings? They look a mess."

Maleficent hauled herself to her knees, wincing in pain as she passed golden magic over her wings.

"They'll heal in two days." She hissed, before crawling to a corner and curling up in a ball.

"It has to end soon right? Winter is almost done. She cannot hold them in her power much longer, surely." He knelt beside her.

"I don't know." Maleficent lapsed into unconsciousness and Diaval curled up next to her to join her in sleep.

Thanks to their efforts, the winter touched the Moors and the lands beyond less deeply than in the mountains. The human kingdom was well and the plentiful harvest was seeing them through whatever hardship the weather caused.

The Moors were covered in snow but it was gentle and not the slicing knives of ice Maleficent had to contend with. Thusly she was satisfied that she was fulfilling her role as Protector.

Whenever the fighting lulled she went to see the Lady but there was not a lot to report beyond a still frozen pool and once, the conception of the child and the taking of the curse.

Aurora was well but Maleficent never asked after her and Diaval had gotten used to informing her in a roundabout way how the Queen faired in his reports on relations between faeries and of the friendship between the Moors and the human Kingdom.

Spring came to the Moors early, in dripping damp and humid air and it made Aurora's hair frizz as she waded through slush and rivers running high with melt water. The Moors flourished in the sun and new growth seemed everywhere, beauty bursting forth again and she felt she understood what Maleficent had meant, when she had said the Moors had been but a shadow under her rule. It dazzled her. She wondered whether the Lady's pool had thawed in the spring heat, but she had not travelled to see her since Maleficent had left, stung by the fact that the Lady had known and had not told her, and she wasn't about to start now. Besides, if it was magic, the chances were that it had not.

She no longer wore her boots, walking about barefoot for the most part, her soles becoming gnarly as Maleficent's had been, thorns no longer a worry for her. Her hair she brushed into a plait for convenience when it began to frizz. The crown stayed on the table in her shieling except for the weekly and monthly meetings with the humans. She did not exactly inform Phillip of Maleficent's departure but her absence was noted as was the Queen's subdued look, although she was more commanding than ever when dealing with irritating council members. Even the new ones had difficulty dealing with the sanctity the Moors required and with Aurora's refusal to broach the topic of marriage.

She found herself staying at the castle after the meetings and would walk the library, teaching herself how to read better. Life in the Moors did not call for much letter writing but sometimes there were contracts between the humans and she did not like being ignorant of what they meant. Phillip had found her there the second time and joined her, helping her with the intricacies of the human courts.

"It will help you avoid affronting people by accident. Protocol is stuffy as anything but still. Excessive politeness can work in your favour." He smiled at her, acknowledging his own behaviour.

"It will stop them thinking of me as some ignorant girl from the woods at any rate. I would loathe it if they thought the Moors were full of simpletons, much less ruled by one."

"You are clever." Phillip nodded. "And certainly a good person."

Aurora smiled a little sadly. "I'm not so sure I could claim that. So! Excessive politeness will have to do instead."

And so she devoured the new knowledge, although she was never foolish enough to attempt to enact any human style of politics in the Moors.

"Maleficent never had to learn anything like this I bet." Phillip dared to joke one time as they were debating the finer points of the uses of having a council.

Aurora glowered at him. "In fact, Maleficent taught me a vast deal about the Moors before I became Queen as you well know. But no. There is a Faerie Council in the Moors, but mostly it only convenes to discuss matters that cause consternation rather than to discuss the running of the Moors. The Fair Folk mostly trust in each other." She stopped suddenly. *they trust in each other. Did they ever trust Maleficent? Do they trust me, truly, as one who is not of their kind? Does Maleficent?* the young Queen was still plagued by doubts regarding her rule and the trust placed in her.

Phillip tilted his head as if to ask a question but pursued the subject no further.

"Well, I suppose our councils are not too dissimilar. Only in the human world, the lord or representative is put in place by the King, that's me, rather than elected or chosen at random. And of course, the main difference being is that in your council everyone has the right to a say whereas ultimately the decision comes down to the King, that's me again, as to whether to take action on something or not…" he went on and Aurora found it soothing to listen to his steady stream of information and comparisons as she took it in.

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In the damp warmth of spring the snow sprites settled down to their natural hibernation, meaning that Maleficent could make a longer visit to the Lady and perform the ritual to change Diaval. She added her own magic and the spells she had been using to change Diaval into a mixture made from the water in the Lady's pool.

"Drink this." She commanded, using one of her own rather bent and battle weary feathers to daub the mixture onto his face in arrow like markings. He downed the contents of the cup in one go as she stood back, drew a golden circle in the air and blew at him through it. "With the magic from the Moors, with the magic from me, let you forever choose what form you wish to be." She spelled, casting a golden net around him, interwoven with sparkles of green.

The Lady shielded her eyes as with a great blast of magic, Diaval changed into a Raven. He hopped and croaked experimentally.

"Well, at least he still makes a good Raven." The Lady commented.

With another whoosh of magic he changed back into a man with a startled "AWK!"

"That's a new sensation I must say." He gasped for breath, fighting to regain his balance.

"No doubt you will get smoother at it as the magic takes." Maleficent grinned at him. "But that was not bad for a beginner's go."

"Aye, well forgive me if I don't try dragons any time soon." He grunted, collapsing onto his hands and knees.

"All in good time." She held out a hand to him and he dragged himself upright, steadying himself against her.

There was an awkward pause. "I could try a dragon. Might come in useful against yon Snow Queenie." He suggested weakly.

Maleficent shook her head. "I appreciate the offer but this is magic, not real snow bound with snow sprites and magic. Bring Brynna to me. I will perform the same rite on her."

Diaval nodded and changed back into a Raven, already smoother in the transition.

"You will be leaving then." The Lady stated, joining Maleficent at the entrance of her cave where she stood watching the Raven wing away.

"As soon as this is done." Maleficent shivered. A long winter up in the mountains and it felt like she would never be warm again.

"Even if you succeed in banishing her, the child will still be born cursed."

"I know." Maleficent waved the Lady away. "I know what I must do, believe me. I've known since you first told me."

Diaval returned then and cut the conversation short. Brynna had not been far away.

The rite was performed again and she changed into a rather handsome young woman although as the Lady remarked, "I'll make her some clothes."

Maleficent walked to the edge of the cave once more to gaze out over the Moors.

"So you'll be leaving now then." Diaval came to stand beside her, as the Lady educated his mate on what clothes were.

"Yes." Maleficent jutted her chin out.

"Will ye not even say goodbye to…"

"Take care of her." Maleficent interrupted, turning towards him. "Take care of Brynna. Have many beautiful chicks, Diaval."

He nodded. "Aye. If she does want 'em at least."

"Now you are both changelings, so they will born also, if you both so choose. You'll be starting a whole new kind." She smiled sadly.

Diaval hugged her then, suddenly. "You come back, you hear? You promised Aurora, I heard you. You've got to come back."

Maleficent swallowed hard and disentangled herself. "Goodbye Diaval."

"YOU COME BACK!" He shouted after her as she took to the skies. His mate and the Lady came to stand by him. "She'll come back." It sounded more like a question and the Lady shook her head before retiring to her cave. Diaval stared after her but Brynna took his hand and the newly made changelings transformed back into ravens and flew off to their nest.

And so it was that Aurora was walking the Borderlands and felt the sudden lack of the Faerie's presence and the shadow that she felt now across her was a much darker one.

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It was just after Aurora's seventeenth birthday, midway through the early spring that Diaval left Brynna on their nest for the evening and flew to visit her properly. He still flew to check on her every day but had put off talking to her. He had a feeling she would not be best pleased to learn of Maleficent flying off.

He found Robin first and cautiously asked him where Aurora was. Robin flew him to a hollow and pointed down where Aurora and Phillip were sat reading.

"She spends much time with the human King. He teaches her to read better and they talk a great deal on philosophies and other such human rubbish." Robin spat. "It breaks my heart. Reminds me too much of Maleficent with that one's father." He flew off in a huff and the Raven croaked a goodbye, thinking to himself that a lot of people flew off without saying goodbye properly.

Diaval watched and waited until the King left and then hopped down to the ground, shape-shifting into a human right in front of her. Aurora sprang up in a joy and alarm, looking immediately for Maleficent but Diaval shook his head.

"I'm a true changeling now. Shifting form at will rather than command." He grinned awkwardly at Aurora's expression when she realised that this meant Maleficent had not returned with him. "Still not sure it's a blessing but aye."

She embraced him gently, restraining herself but Diaval squeezed her hard and she gave in to a hug of the likes she had not had for a long time, glad to see her pretty bird after so long.

"I have a mate too. Brynna." Diaval told her, attempting to divert her away from questions about Maleficent. "Mal…uhm…she got made a changeling too. We're planning on having wee eggs. And they too…"

"Where is she?" Aurora asked quietly, cutting off his babble.

He scratched his nose nervously. "Gone to the East Fairyland to fight the Snow Queen. We guarded the Moors all winter long and the sprites have died down enough that she can go to the source. There's a child…a princess been cursed. Maleficent means to try and lift it."

"She does that." Aurora replied wryly.

"Ye have done well with the Queening." Diaval looked about him to fill an awkward silence. "The Moors look more beautiful than I ever have seen 'em." Aurora glared at him.

"Well, I like to think I work as hard as the Protector does defending the Moors from the forces of evil."

Diaval winced at Aurora's use of the word Protector although their similarity of avoiding actual names amused him.

"She'll come back." He reassured her.

"You say that as much to convince yourself as me. You and Robin are the same. That's not what I want to hear. And not from you." Aurora shook her head.

"Sorry." The changeling Raven apologised.

"I don't suppose she gave any hint of when she would be coming back?"

"Well no, she wasn't uh…"

"She said goodbye and flew off?"

"Well yes."

Aurora made a noise that was half sob half snort of laughter and flung herself back down on the ground.

"I suppose she'll come back when this business is finished, if it ever is." Diaval seated himself on the ground beside her; fairly certain now she wouldn't fly at him in a rage. "She's doin' it for the good of the Moors, you know that aye?"

"Yes. I heard stories from those who came down the mountain, that you two rescued." She smiled briefly. "Was it worse?"

"Aye." Diaval nodded, flexing his fingers and legs in memory of the wounds they'd received. "It half-killed her sometimes, keeping the Snow Queen out all winter." There was a stunned silence in which Diaval realised what he'd said. "I mean, it's taking a lot out of her. But she's doin' grand. Well she was when she left."

"And it will be worse against the Snow Queen herself?" Aurora found herself on the other side, in that terrible calm once more.

"…Aye. I imagine so. She sent me back because I wouldn't be able to fight. Not against magic. Not against that kind of magic. And she'd want you nowhere near it, before you think of running off to her."

"I wouldn't even know where to start running to." Aurora sighed. "Couldn't she have come back to see me?"

"I think she thinks it'll hurt less, easier to leave just once aye?"

"I wouldn't tell her not to go. Not again." Her chest was tightening unbearably.

"Aye. But she'd still have to leave you. And she'd want to stay. Tis ice she goes to fight against and she'll need ice in her heart to defeat it."

"The Snow Queen must be truly terrible." Aurora murmured and fell silent. They sat there together as night fell and luminescent fireflies and pixies flew about the Moors above them. Tears stung Aurora's eyes as she remembered the first time she'd seen them. *'Don't be afraid.' 'I am not afraid.' 'Come out then.' 'Then you would be afraid.'* "I wasn't afraid." She said out loud. "But you were, weren't you. What were you afraid of? That I would be afraid? But you came out anyway. Are you still afraid? You said…when we went to the castle, that you're afraid. I thought you meant of the humans there, of the iron. But was it really?"

Diaval looked at Aurora nonplussed. "You think Maleficent is scared?"

"I know she's scared. She didn't just go all cold and distant because she was leaving. It's because I kissed her."

"You've kissed her lots of times and she's kissed you." Diaval shrugged.

"Yes but Robin said…about the fact that faeries steal Kisses but that a kiss had a history."

"True Love's Kiss right?"

"With my father." Aurora mused. "He was sixteen…" realisation came to Aurora. "Is she scared that I love her or scared that I don't love her?"

"To be sure I'm not exactly the right person to be asking that." Diaval struggled to catch up with Aurora's thought process.

"He left her. He gave her true love's kiss when they were sixteen and then he left her. She's afraid of what, that I'll get lured by the humans like my father?" Aurora let her head fall back against the tree trunk.

"Well, have ye not been? Spending so much time with the King?" The look Aurora shot him was so disgusted that he apologised. "Sorry."

"I suppose it doesn't really matter. She would've left anyway. How is she doing anyway, apart from the fighting? Is she having nightmares? Is she eating properly?" questions poured out and Diaval answered them the best he could.

"When she left, she was fierce in the fightin'. She…" here he hesitated but Maleficent was far away. "She still has her nightmares, even more now with the battles but I made sure she ate properly."

"That's good then."

Diaval decided to move onto a safer topic. "So the talking with the King? All peace I take it?"

"Oh don't you start." Aurora flung her arms up. "I have those dratted council members giggling like children every time we spend more than two minutes in each other's company."

"I wasn't starting anything." The Raven said indignantly.

"You were a moment ago." Aurora reminded him. "Yes. I talk with him a lot. For the whole winter I have had precisely him and Robin as friends that I can talk to. He's a good friend and…"

"And?"

"He's a good friend." Aurora scowled at him. "And I think he's lonely too. I think he misses his home as well."

"You're in your home." Diaval pointed out.

"My home was with Maleficent in the Oak. Shielings aren't the same. You can be monarch of a place and it still won't be home. Would your nest be home without…what was her name again?"

"Brynna. Fair point."

"You'd best be getting back to her." Aurora smiled sadly and got to her feet. "She'll be lonely."

Diaval followed suit and hugged the Queen. "I'll see you again soon." He promised before transforming and winging away. Aurora turned her eyes earthward and headed back to her shieling. She had long ago given up watching the skies.

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The Snow Queen was all powerful in her land of winter but Maleficent brought with her the healing powers of spring, starting low in the valleys, her wings bringing with the warm winds all the way up to the mountains. She expected a battle but the Snow Queen fled before the melt waters, as if acknowledging her lack of power, although Maleficent suspected it was merely a stay of hand. The Faerie Protector stayed in the East Fairyland all summer to heal the damaged lands there and to reawaken its Fair Folk. Her attempts to thaw the Lady were of no avail but with the snow vanishing, the rest of the citizens came to life and went about their duties as best they could. Terror still gripped them and Maleficent could not reassure them that the Snow Queen truly had left for good. Still, they trusted her, working with her daily. They helped what humans they could from afar, the Fair Folk here were mainly a legend in the human kingdom and they did not bother each other overmuch.

Maleficent felt her body recovering in the weak warmth of the East sun but she had to fight hard to stop despair claiming her heart. It wrenched at her for being apart from Aurora for so long, knowing that the Queen might well not forgive her for the abrupt leaving. Diaval and Robin would both have explained the situation by now. She was plagued by guilt at not having told Aurora herself, as she had not told her about the curse. *'Do you really trust me?'* echoed in her mind.

At first Maleficent thought that she did. She had trusted her Beastie with the Moors and had even long ago trusted her not to be afraid and had come out. But there had always been that nagging feeling. That Aurora would leave. The Faerie had taken so much from her in her life; surely the woman would wish to return to the human world, as her father had before her. And yet, she'd stayed, all those long months, had passed every test, had become Queen. And then she had kissed her. And it had brought reality to Maleficent. This was no crush to be indulged until it wore off. She had felt it in the moment their lips had touched. Her Beastie loved her, far deeper than anyone ever had. Of all the things she had taken from Aurora's life, the woman's heart was possibly the worst thing. She could protect Aurora from all the evil and snow and magic in the world, even break her own curse, but still the greatest evil she could not protect Aurora from was Maleficent herself.

"I had to leave Beastie." She whispered to herself, as she reclined in a tree in the East Fairyland, her mind whirling with her thought process, wishing that Aurora could somehow hear her. "And you could not have come with me. Not here. Not to face her. But if I had told you, you would have been afraid, afraid for me. For you know. And I could not face that fear in your eyes and still leave. Still fight."

The autumn came and the child was born and the curse took hold in full effect. The girl, for the child was indeed born such, had the power of winter and a frozen heart.

On her birthday, Maleficent flew to the castle to try and lift it from the babe as she slept, but the twines of magic were lodged deep. Maleficent felt the magic attempting to wrap itself around her too and stumbled backwards, tearing it from her.

She heard footsteps and was forced to flee through the window and as she did so she felt the cold flurries on her wings. She looked to the Fairyland in the mountains and saw the huge swirl of a storm emerging from it. The Snow Queen had returned and the winter with her, harsher than ever. Harvest had barely ended and already snow covered the land.

Maleficent tore back to the Fairyland but there was nothing she could do as it spread out and out across the world. She fought through the barrier the Snow Queen had created to keep her out and hurriedly built a small shieling as protection. Any surviving Faeries found it and they cowered there as Maleficent healed them.

In the Moors the snow sprites cackled down the mountain and across the land. Aurora visited the Lady for the first time since Maleficent had left, terrified at what such a winter meant.

"It means that Maleficent has failed and the Snow Queen has returned." The Lady shook her head.

"Is she still alive?" Aurora was heartsick at what failure meant.

"That I cannot tell." A tear fell from the Lady's eyes onto her still iced pool but it made no mark on the surface. Aurora steeled herself and strode out even more determined to help the Fair Folk of the Moors in any way she could for if Maleficent was not returning, then they would need their Queen. As much as the Moors were also in trouble, as a sign of their peace she requested that some of the Fair Folk make rounds of the isolated human dwellings, to help in what they could. Indeed she spent half her time doing so herself, the other half asking of the Faerie Council what more she could do to help, as a human without wings or magic.

When the last of the Eastern Fair Folk had made its way to the now rather enlarged shieling, Maleficent left once more, flying through the snow storms back to the castle. She could not defeat the Snow Queen in her winter by her own powers lone and she would at least save the child from the curse, if she could do little else. She had a plan besides, a terrible plan. If she could lift the curse from the child, and by now it appeared that to do so meant taking it upon herself, then she would have the power of winter and ice against ice, only then might she have the means to defeat the Snow Queen.

Maleficent flew through the snow storms to the castle. The winter storm was gathering and it would not be long before it set in eternally and all the Lands, both human and Fairy were lost. She opened the window onto the child's room, hissing at the chilly blast that came in with her as she struggled to close it behind her but the child did not seem bothered by the cold as the wind played with her already silvery blonde hair.

Maleficent stood over the child's cradle, flashbacks of standing over Aurora's, to curse her, to mock her, barraging her mind. And with her mind filled with Aurora, she delved deep into the child's heart to grasp firmly at the strands of magic there. The magic cut her hands as a snare would as she withdrew it and shards of ice formed and seeped into her veins through the open wounds. She felt them work their way up her arm, causing ice crystals to form on her skin.

"Your heart will freeze and from this will come your power, the power of Winter." The curse echoed softly around the room. Maleficent felt the curse take upon her heart and she cried out in shock, breaking the connection before she could fully remove the curse. The child stared silently at the winged Faerie with eyes that were now at least a warmer tone of blue, if rather puzzled.

"I can do no more." She whispered at the girl, passing a hand over her to feel for what remained of the curse. She felt the chilly touch of winter in the child's extremities, where the last of the curse had flown but the heart was warm and the head was too and with that Maleficent would have to be satisfied.

There was not time to try again as the ice worked across and under her skin and she returned to the Moors in haste. If there was a time to defeat the Snow Queen it was now, before the curse destroyed her completely. She landed before the still frozen bower, where the Snow Queen was sat, staring at the figure of the Lady through her ice. Maleficent held her staff in a battle stance, wings spread wide.

"You see how easily I take them Maleficent?" she gestured. "This Fairyland, its Lady still frozen, could you not even thaw her out even in the heat of summer?" she took a moment to point out this failure and laugh. "This Fairyland, that Fairyland, your precious Moors. It's queen." The Snow Queen grinned maliciously at Maleficent's expression. "Oh yes, my dear, I found out about your little human pet. It was quaint; I'll grant you, to think that humans and Fae can live peaceably in harmony. As if they did not always try to destroy us, jealous of our magic. As she will destroy you. Your precious…beastie."

Dread was overcome by rage and Maleficent took to the air and barrelled towards the Snow Queen. "YOU WILL NOT TAKE THE MOORS! YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER! NOT NOW! NOT EVER!" she yelled as she struck the Queen down and sent her flying from the bower, like a bull tossing a rag away with its horns.

The Snow Queen laughed breathlessly as she struggled upright. "Oh you are fierce aren't you? Were you hoping to protect her from me? As long as I didn't know? That she would not pay for your insolence? Once I am done with you here, she will be next. And believe me, dear, now that you've foolishly taken on my curse, I will be done with you. Did your own experiences teach you nothing? Your heart will freeze forever now. You're mine!" She raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. Maleficent felt the cold ice cut through her heart, replacing munificence with chilly brutality. And the brutality of the winter, in all its beauty, focussed around only one thing, what Maleficent had clung to since she had first taken the curse upon her. The overwhelming desire to protect, if it took destruction to do so. It released all of Maleficent's power and combined it with the power of winter and Maleficent took it all and directed it straight at the Snow Queen.

The Snow Queen was blasted backwards, impaled by her own ice and Maleficent guided her half frozen form through the portal, sealing it swiftly behind her, even as she felt the ice crackle over her body and wings.

The Snow Queen was defeated and returned to her land. The cursed girl would still have the power of winter but with a normal human heart, there was at least hope of a thaw. This Fairyland had been protected. The Moors had been protected. And all Maleficent wanted to do now was to return to them.

She struggled back to the Moors, not even stopping to recuperate, a bird frozen by the winter.

An: Silly Mally don't you know that love thaws?


	13. Gold Glows the Spring

An: *apologetically shuffles up and leaves an update* I still don't own anything. After all this time? Always.

Chapter Thirteen: Gold Glows The Spring…

By the time Maleficent had returned, the winter had already receded and spring had returned. The Faerie crashed into her tree, exhausted, blue and battle weary. Her hammock was threadbare and the roof was full of holes now but she collapsed gratefully into the shelter. Her wounds were not healing and she considered herself lucky her wings had borne her this far. Feathers moulted from them as the ice advanced. Soon. It would be far too soon that the ice would take her but she had no further energy to move. The Queen was vanquished, the child had been partially saved and the Moors and the Eastern Fairyland were safe. She could do no more. Lapsing into unconsciousness, she slept the sleep of the dead that night.

Of course her rather magnificent crash had been seen by the various nocturnal faeries and by the morning the whisper went through the air. "Maleficent's returned!" "She's badly injured." "Her wings have hardly any feathers!" "She's all blue and icy."

Aurora was visiting the Lady, who had summoned the Queen to tell her that her pool had thawed, when word reached her through Diaval and Robin, who arrived simultaneously, nearly crashing into each other in the entrance in their haste to tell the Queen the news.

"Aurora!" they cried in unison, not even bothering to untangle themselves. She turned and her eyes widened, becoming aware of the familiar sensation of Maleficent's shadow. But it was so weak! She did not need them to say more. She ran full tilt and hurdled them, whistling for one of the great winged Dughviel who swooped down to her level and with practiced ease she swung herself up onto it's back.

"To the Oak!" she cried, as Diaval and Robin struggled to catch up with them. She had not been there once since Maleficent had left but she knew it was the only place Maleficent would return to. Surely. She resisted urging the Dughviel on, it was still of the darker creatures and of the Lady, no matter how many times they transported her.

Huge wings ate up the miles and the cliff was soon in sight. As the Dughviel swooped low, she leapt off and rolled to her feet, coming up running towards the tree.

"MALEFICENT!" she did not halt and leapt half way up through the branches, up and up to the where the Faerie was still curled, her wings draped limply over her. Her wounds had only healed with the freezing of her skin and the remains of the hammock were stained red. Aurora's jaw clenched and she hesitated to move for fear of hurting Maleficent further.

Diaval and Robin clattered into the tree across from her, Diaval transforming into a man to perch on a branch.

"What caused this?" he wondered, gesturing towards the blood and the ice, thinking back to when Maleficent would heal their wounds in an instant golden glow.

"Magic." Robin whispered from beside him. "Iron burns heal and even normal wounds do not harm her for long but magic and a powerful evil one at that. A curse."

"She feels so cold!" Aurora's voice trembled as she reached out her hand and her finger tips brushed against the Faerie's cheek. She gave in and slipped into the hammock to cradle Maleficent to her. "Please come back." She whispered, tears falling like melting snow. "You promised. You said you'd come back. And you have but you have to come back properly. You have to wake up. Be warm again. Be as warm as spring. Please." The Faerie did not stir even at Aurora's voice. "Please!" she brushed strands of hair away, ignoring the ice crystals that fell away at her touch. "Please…"

"Kiss her!" Robin hissed.

"What?" Aurora stared at him.

"Yes! Kiss her!" Diaval bounced urgently. "Kiss her! Like she kissed you!"

"If it is a curse and it looks like one…" Robin nodded.

"But…"

"KISS HER!" they cried in unison.

"Last time, she ran away because I kissed her." Aurora pointed out.

"So kiss her on her Kiss, she can't complain then!" Diaval threw his hands in the air, nearly hitting Robin in the face, who scowled at the changeling Raven before turning back to the Queen.

"She does nae look to be running anywhere fast at the moment lass, I think you'll be able to catch her."

Aurora regarded them for a brief second, as if to affirm that this was their idea before returning her attention to Maleficent.

"I do love you. If I have stolen the remnants of your heart, then here is all of mine to take their place." She whispered, bending down to kiss the Faerie on her Kiss.

Diaval and Robin watched expectantly and they were not disappointed as warmth glowed golden around them. They had to avert their eyes when the light peaked powerfully bright and they heard more than saw the deep breath the Faerie took as she stirred into wakefulness. She exhaled as she opened her eyes, looking up from Aurora's lap, her eyes finding the young Queen's. A faint smile touched the lips returning to their ruby.

"Hello Beastie…" she murmured softly before collapsing back into a more peaceful and natural sleep.

There was a stunned silence from the three still conscious ones.

"What?" Diaval's mouth fell open.

"Aye well Kisses are powerful things but uh..." Robin attempted to reason. He trailed off, seeing Diaval's expression of disbelief. Aurora simply stared down at the Faerie. They looked at her with bated breath, awaiting her response.

"And she just falls back to sleep?!" she cried in outrage.

"It cannot be denied that sleep is a powerful healer." Robin nodded sagely.

"And they call me Sleeping Beauty!" Aurora snorted, hugging the Faerie to her as she rocked her back and forth, biting her lip to stop further tears, hiccupping occasionally as relieved laughter escaped.

"Aye and when ye've finished, Majesty, shall we no take her down to your shieling? This hammock has seen better days and although the spring is already warm upon the air, she'll be needing shelter to recuperate from a curse like that'n." the old Faerie suggested. Aurora nodded, laying Maleficent gently down before taking a knife from her belt to cut through the vines that held it in the tree.

It made a make shift stretcher and with Aurora leading and Diaval and Robin at the rear, they carried the lost Protector through the Moors. Their progress was somewhat slowed as there was uproar at the sight of Maleficent and Aurora had to explain to what they were doing each time a new band came along. She sighed as she sent the latest lot on their way as they approached the shieling. No doubt word would be spread inaccurately across all the Moors but she could hold a conclave once Maleficent was settled.

They made the Faerie comfortable on Aurora's bed, allowing the Fair Folk to peer anxiously around the door although the little gathering soon got shooed away as another Dughviel carried the Lady and her healing bag to the shieling.

Robin closed the door as she, business-like, laid out the contents on Aurora's desk. She uncorked a bottle of the water from her pool, splashing the liquid over the Faerie's hands and wings. She cursed under her breath in the language of the Border Guards as she bandaged what wounds she could.

"These'll take some powerful healing." She muttered.

"How come she just fell asleep? Is she cursed?" Diaval asked her as he handed her another bowl of some curious paste that she had brought with her. "Did Aurora's Kiss work?"

"I couldn't tell you without her waking but it looks to me as if she's just sleeping it off. I'd leave her to it." The Lady tied off the last bandage with a flourish. "Make the bed anew. Change that lot every two hours. Let me know if anything changes." She gathered what was no longer necessary of her effects and walked out the door. Only then did Aurora relax and move to Maleficent's side.

"Well…we have our orders." Diaval raised an eyebrow at the remaining two.

"I have my duties to attend to." Aurora said over her shoulder, not even looking away from the prone form on her bed. "And I need to call a conclave to spread the news."

"We'll take shifts." Robin rested a hand on her shoulder. "I can see ye be tempted to stay with her 'til she wakes again but ye must rest as well. And as ye say, you have your duties."

Aurora nodded as she moved to the door and for the first time drew forth her whistle and blew it. There was a brief pause and then with an almighty rumbling Balthazar and Grutavan arrived at the shieling.

"Maleficent has returned but she is critically ill. She must be guarded at all times, as a matter of the highest importance." She informed them and they bowed, taking up positions on either side of the door.

After they had made the bed up new around the Faerie, Aurora told Robin to take the first watch.

"I must call a conclave."

"Aye I know."

"I'll be back as soon as it's done."

"Aye. I know."

"Look…"

"AYE. I know." Robin glowered at her. "Go be dutiful. The Beastie'll come to no harm on my watch."

"Right." The Queen paused at the side of the bed and leaned over to whisper in Maleficent's ear. "This still doesn't count as keeping your promise, you know. You still have to come back to me."

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The Conclave was a mass of confusion until Aurora turned up and called for order. There were cheers at the news of Maleficent's triumph but silence returned swiftly at the news of her injuries. The Fair Folk left in a hushed silence, not even whispering to each other.

Aurora stood at the Drachkarach stone, watching them leave as Diaval flew to her side and dropped out of the air as a human.

"What news?" She turned to him breathlessly.

"Um. None. Just…checking on Brynna and thought I'd come see how things were going."

Aurora bit her lip. "Sorry Diaval. It feels unfair to keep you from your family."

He shrugged. "Maleficent's been my friend these past two decades, she's as much family to me as any."

"Brynna must be very understanding."

"Well…we all have our duties to attend to aye?" Diaval grinned. "I'll not be able to spend around the clock helping out."

"I understand." Aurora nodded. "

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It took three more days for the Faerie's wounds to heal. In that time, she was watched at all times although she did not waken again. Aurora left her side only to bathe and tour the Moors, which were alive with tempered joy at Maleficent's return. The thaw had begun in earnest and all the Fair Folk were working their hardest to make the Moors beautiful again after the killing winter. The Queen, when she did sleep, slept at Maleficent's side, grasping a handful of the Faerie's robes in her hand each time, as if afraid she would fly off whilst she slept.

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Maleficent's eyes snapped open in a sudden return to consciousness. She felt warm, warmer than she had felt for over a year. Blankets shrouded her. She was in a bed. When had that happened? Memories flashed across her eyes and she shivered from the memory of the terrible cold. She'd crashed into the Oak, someone must have found her…

"Aurora?" she croaked, struggling to lift the blankets from her.

"She's bathin'." She recognised Robin's voice as he helped her surface. "Best not to get up. Ye'll probably feel woozy."

"What happened?"

"Aye well that's a story I'd like to hear too. Your side of it. You've been out for nigh on four days now. We found ye in the oak and brought ye back here to recover. The Lady did some magic for your wounds."

"The curse…how did you lift the curse?"

Robin shifted uncomfortably. "It was lifted in the traditional manner, so to speak."

"Traditional?" Maleficent's eyes narrowed.

"Oh. You know." He waved a hand distractedly. "True Love's Kiss an' all that."

"Aurora…" the world was fading again.

"Aye, she'll return soon. Rest some more Beastie." Robin soothed her. "There'll be time enough for tellin' I'm sure."

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Her second return to consciousness found her more clearheaded and less weary. Her body felt stiff and she struggled upright in order to stretch out her muscles. There was less pain than she had anticipated; the Lady's healing was powerful. She inspected her arms but even the scars were fading. She flexed her wings experimentally and became aware of someone standing in the doorway watching her.

"Well, ye seem to be doin' well." Diaval grinned at her.

"Diaval!" her heart brightened at the realisation it was the Changeling Raven.

"Maleficent." He bowed to her, in mock formality.

"Where is everyone?" she looked around and vaguely recognised the shieling the Fair Folk had built for Aurora.

"If by everyone you mean Aurora, she's at the Palace. Monthly meeting an' all that." He shrugged awkwardly.

"Of course."

"She wanted to inform them of how ye were doin'. Robin told us ye woke up for a short while."

"Hmm."

"The Lady says her pool has thawed. That you did it. Beat the Snow Queen."

"Is everything…are the Moors…"

"The Moors are fine. We suffered in the winter with the snows but Aurora handled it magnificently. Even the human Kingdom managed to survive it. And Spring is doin' a marvellous job of thawin' the rest out."

Maleficent swung her legs over the side of the bed and tested them experimentally with her weight.  
Diaval wordlessly handed her staff to her and she took it gratefully, leaning on it heavily as she stood, gasping slightly in pain. It reminded her of when she had lost her wings but if she had survived that, she could cope with this pain.

"Slowly now." Diaval advised as she made her way to the door, pushing it open for her so she could look out at the Moors.

They were dazzling in the midday sunlight as it dappled off leaves, newly returned to the trees. There were buds and unopened flowers and sprites and faeries paused in their darting duties tending to them as they noticed her presence and then raced off, squealing and chirping. Diaval grinned.

"I think the Moors are glad to have their Protector back. Ye've become rather a hero throughout all the Fairylands."

"And you Diaval?" Maleficent quirked an eyebrow.

"Well I helped." He shrugged.

"Are you glad to see me return?"

She was embraced rather heartily. "Gladder than you know." He squeezed her gently, mindful of any injuries that might still be hurting. "I missed ye something terrible."

Maleficent smiled somewhat shyly at that as she returned the hug. "I missed you too pretty bird. How goes life as a Changeling?" she asked.

"Suits me well." He changed into a Raven and swooped about her and she resisted the urge to click her fingers and change him as she used to when he annoyed her by doing so. He unfolded into a human again, grinning.

"So I can see. I commend you on the smoothness of your transformation."

"Brynna's better at it."

Maleficent walked a little way and sank to the ground beneath a tree.

"If ye be tired would you not find the bed more comfortable?" Diaval crouched beside her.

"I prefer the outside. But it is a pretty shieling."

Diaval stared at his feet. Such light-heartedness could not last and he felt the question brewing as he could feel thunder storms.

"How is she Diaval?"

"She bides well. Does her duty. She's healthy if not happy. Spends a lot of time out and about in the Moors. Rides the Dughviel, would you count it? Never thought such as them would consent to that but she does have a way with 'em."

"And the King?"

"Aye he's fine too. Peace held through the Winter. The Fair Folk gave assistance where they could to help the humans and that helped soothe any feelings of distrust. The farmers were grateful."

"When will she return from the Palace?"

"Soon, I should imagine. She doesn' like to be away from…from the Moors long."

Maleficent leant back against the tree, trying to collect her thoughts. She didn't have the courage to ask Diaval what she truly wanted to know and she wasn't sure he'd know anyway. She felt a sudden nostalgia for the days when it was them against the humans but the wings at her back forbade a return to "simpler" times. Whatever there was to be faced now would have to be faced. But a year had passed and she was no longer sure of anything. Except…

Her eyes snapped open. "True Love's Kiss?"

"What?"

"Robin said the curse…"

"Aye. Au…um…well. It was the only thing we could think of y'see?"

"But…"

Diaval laughed as he realised where Maleficent's thoughts were heading. She glowered at him as he fell sideways in his mirth. "Ah to be sure I think ye daft as anything. Although I couldn't say as she's not mad as hell for the way ye left but that she loved you and that she loves you, well ye'd be an idiot to doubt it."

"I'll keep that in mind." Maleficent snorted as a flush spread across her face.

"Do you want to know what she said?"

"When?"

"When she kissed ye." The flush deepened. "She said…"

"I do love you. If I have stolen the remnants of your heart, then here is all of mine to take their place."

Maleficent and Diaval turned as one to face the Queen, standing framed by two trees, the sun behind her causing a halo of gold to surround her.

"Ah! Aurora!" Diaval darted upright. "Um…I'll just…go tell Robin that Maleficent's…" he hopped and transformed, flying swiftly away. Maleficent slowly turned her eyes to Aurora. Words and sentences fought to assemble sentences but there was nothing that she could say in explanation or apology that seemed right. Instead she simply gazed at the Queen and got lost in regarding her.

A year had seen Aurora grow taller, although still not as tall as Maleficent. Her clothes were practical and well-worn but her hair was loose and the crown adorned her head. She supposed left there from the visit to the castle. Hollowed cheeks were testament to a harsh winter but the eyes above them were strong and blue and determined. A Queen indeed.

"Thank you." She said simply to break the increasing silence, those two words being the only ones she felt she could say with sincerity.

Aurora's eyes looked full on at Maleficent at last, meeting the opal hued gaze of the Faerie. "You're welcome." She inclined her head. Maleficent rose to her feet, leaning on her staff.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Maleficent was taken aback.

"For keeping your promise. You came back." And with that Aurora rushed to embrace her. "You came back." She half sobbed. "You came back."

Maleficent could still find no words and so she held the Queen to her and surrounded them both with her wings. They stayed like that for a long time, glad to be in each other's presence after such a separation.

After a while, Maleficent began to tire and the embrace became more of a support.

"Are you alright? You need to rest more." Aurora helped Maleficent to sit back down at the base of the tree.

"Mm." Maleficent murmured, grasping Aurora's hand. The Queen sat down beside her and after a moment's hesitation, leant her head on Maleficent's shoulder, causing the Faerie to smile as she closed her eyes. The months fell away and it felt as though all was as it had been.

"I asked some of the tree sprites to fix your hammock so you can return to the Oak whenever you like." Aurora said after a long silence.

"Thank you Beastie."

"If you're feeling rested enough we can go there now."

Maleficent nodded and they walked together, hand in hand, Maleficent's wings in no condition yet to support her weight.

"I had forgotten how beautiful the Moors are." Maleficent mused as they walked, taking in the full flourishing spring time around her.

"I have taken good care of them." Aurora said proudly, looking around her with gladness in her heart that they were healing from the winter. She made a note to make a special thank you at the next conclave for all the hard work everyone had put in to help the Moors recover.

"You have indeed. I left them in good hands."

Aurora sighed. "Thank you for the confidence."

"I…am sorry. I had to leave." Maleficent faltered, still unsure exactly how to phrase what she wanted to say.

"I wasn't saying you didn't. The Lady and Diaval and even Robin hinted at how particularly awful the Snow Queen is and having lived through a winter caused by her, I can't say I'd ever like to meet her. But it would've been nice if you'd told me. Trusted me enough. That they had to tell me…" Aurora stopped abruptly and slid her hand from Maleficent's.

"I…"

"Shut up. Just shut up and listen." Aurora stabbed her finger at Maleficent. "You. NEVER! Leave. Me. Like that. Again! You hear? You never leave like that again! You tell me next time! If it is a faerie or a Snow Queen or a demon or a Dragon from the ancient times, you tell me! Why didn't you tell me?"

Maleficent stared at the ground as if that would supply an acceptable answer. It was rare in her life that she felt ashamed and unable to do anything about it. Most of those times were caused by Aurora, or rather, Maleficent's actions towards Aurora. But the answer was rather simple, at least in summary. "I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

Maleficent lowered herself to the ground, reclining against a nearby tree. The walk was tiring enough; this conversation would take even more of her strength. Aurora remained standing on the path, still angry but she waited patiently for whatever reply Maleficent could come up with. Maleficent tried to collect her thoughts into a coherent story line.

"When the Lady first told me that she'd come through, I knew there would be a battle. I'm the Protector of the Moors, the strongest of the Fair Folk and also…well stronger than most of all the Fair Folk anywhere. There are few that have a Protector you know. Most of them are witches or Stumbled humans, not quite powerful enough to face Faerie magic."

"Like me?"

"You're rather unique." Maleficent smiled wryly.

"I know that. The Lady told me. But I could barely do anything to stop the magic."

"You are Queen. That is enough. You have power here."

"What do you mean? I don't have…"

"You kept the Moors united, you helped organise them, and you have kept the peace with the human realm. That is a power that no magic can replace. I am very proud of you. And grateful."

Despite herself, Aurora felt her heart swell at those words. She shook her head, she would not be distracted. This conversation was important and Maleficent was trying to side-track it. "You're still not explaining why you didn't tell me."

"The Snow Queen is one of the more powerful Faeries from the old world. I went to face her believing I would die in the attempt. If you had known that…I wanted you to be happy. For even a short while. I was afraid…"

"Of what?" Aurora didn't budge.

"So many things."

"Of what?" It was akin to getting blood out of a stone or getting a Wallerbog not to throw mud at visiting dignitaries.

"Of you looking at me, knowing…knowing how weak I am and you would be afraid. I couldn't face that." Aurora knew better than anyone that Maleficent's strength was not infallible. She had inklings that that night at the castle haunted the Queen as much as it did Maleficent.

"Why ever not?"

"It would have made me weak. Weakened me. I could not afford to show any weakness in front of her."

"Love doesn't make you weak." Aurora hesitated. "Although I can see how you would think that…" she trailed off. Maleficent had loved and trusted and she had lost much as a result.

Maleficent smiled. "I think you may be right about that."

"Oh?"

"I thought I would need ice in my heart to fight the Snow Queen. I took the curse upon myself in order to freeze everything but you know what it was? It was not the power of the curse within me that gave me the strength to defeat her. It was the urge to protect you." Aurora's eyes lit up in triumph but her face fell as she saw Maleficent's darken. "But if you love me, then I cannot protect you from myself."

"What in the Moors makes you think I need protecting from you?" Aurora had guessed that Maleficent was either afraid of loving her or being loved by her but that this was at the root…was something she should also have guessed.

"I cursed you! I did that. Just as the Snow Queen cursed the girl."

"A long time ago. In hatred, in pain, after betrayal. I don't believe that you are capable of doing anything like such an evil now."

"You saw me as evil."

Aurora closed her eyes, cursing the words of her youth. "And what if you were? You saved me from it. If I do so need protecting from you then the very person to do that is you!"

"That doesn't even make sense." Maleficent argued.

"It's a paradox yes but if you think I need protecting from you then…you need to protect me from you. Whatever is in you that you think is evil, then protect me from that. With you. The you I love and that loves me. Because that is what love does. It protects and it heals and it breaks curses and dispels evil and it's wonderful and magic and…yes…maybe, evil in its own way in that it can cause hurt as painful as the most powerful curse so protect me from that too. But…I don't need protecting any more. I've been through that pain and dealt with it and what I want now, not what I need, what I want now, is for you to stay. And be with me. And understand what that means."

"What does it mean?"

Aurora sighed at the denseness of the faerie before her. "It means you never leave me like that again. It means you tell me. It means we share whatever is wrong. And we face whatever is wrong together. And maybe you need to fly off and fight occasionally and I need to stay here and be Queen and keep the Moors peaceful and safe but if we tell each other then it's still together." She breathed deeply. "So tell me. What are you afraid of?"

"Telling you what I'm afraid of."

Aurora's shoulders slumped forward. She couldn't tell whether Maleficent was teasing her or not.

Maleficent coughed. "You are human. Do you not wish for a human life?"

"You're afraid I'm going to leave the Moors? Leave you? Agh! This isn't a guessing game. No. I don't. I've seen the lives of the humans and as well as it seems, I love the Moors. I love you!" That elicited a soft gasp from Maleficent but Aurora went on. "I'm not a child, I've protected two Kingdoms as I've ruled one and I'm grown enough to know what I want and it's the same as what I wanted when I was sixteen."

"And what's that?" Maleficent did not dare to hope, not after so long.

"To live in the Moors with you and look after each other." Aurora gently brushed the tears that had started to fall off of Maleficent's cheeks. She kissed Maleficent full on the lips, grasping Maleficent's hands as they came up in surprise. She kissed her again and again, in relief, to break curses and many, many times for true love.

An: Hee. *looks at all the favourites and reviews* Oh my! Hee. Thank you all!


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